THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407220551
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Arguing that Republican Gov. George F. Allen ``doesn't care about who gets the credit,'' one of the leaders of the governor's commission to abolish parole came hat-in-hand on Thursday to seek support from a powerful Democrat-led legislative group also studying parole.
What former U.S. Attorney Richard Cullen got instead was a tongue-lashing from an influential legislator and a complaint from an NAACP official that ``white fear'' is driving an issue that will have enormous costs - particularly for black Virginians.
Even so, as the legislative Commission on Sentence and Parole Reform adjourned, Chairman James F. Almand gave Cullen part of what he wanted: a liaison committee between the two groups.
And various members acknowledged privately that political pressure likely will be strong enough to eventually drive the Democrats within range of the still-developing Allen plan.
``Everybody's got to run for re-election next year, and the mood of the public is to be tough on crime,'' said state Sen. Richard J. Holland, D-Windsor.
Neither King Salim Khalfani, field coordinator of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, nor Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Alexandria, was willing to let Cullen off quietly, however.
Khalfani complained that both the governor's commission and the legislative group are ``overwhelmingly vanilla when much of the population we're talking about is of African-American descent.''
Blacks make up about 18 percent of Virginia's overall population but two-thirds of its prison population.
Promising that ``we're going to be fighting this thing in September,'' Khalfani said that the ``cost is going to be terrible'' and that the money would be better spent on education, housing, health care and jobs.
Adding to Khalfani's concern was testimony by a Senate staff analyst that if the parole grant rate drops to 15 percent, as predicted by Allen's new parole chairman, Virginia may need 8,860 additional prison beds by 1999 - an increase of more than one-third.
Cullen said that Proposition X, as the governor's plan has been dubbed, is color-blind, and that ``there will be no tax increases included if the governor has anything to say about it.'' Administration officials have acknowledged, however, that bonds will have to be issued for prison construction.
The skeleton of the Allen commission plan calls for abolishing parole, increasing the time served by violent offenders and making sure that all prisoners serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. Allen's commission has promised to unveil its full proposal by mid-August, leading up to a special legislative session in September.
``It would be a real boost for this commission to back us,'' Cullen said, extending an overture to the legislative group.
Gartlan countered that Allen could have fostered bipartisanship by latching onto the work of the legislative commission, which has been meeting for a year and a half. Instead, Allen appointed his own group after winning office last November.
``We'd be in a far better position . . . if instead of establishing an independent commission that went off on its own . . . there'd been a cooperative effort last January,'' Gartlan said.
As for Allen's stated goal of improving public safety, ``I haven't seen a lot that moves in that direction at this point,'' Gartlan said. by CNB