THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130371
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
African Americans countered Gov. George Allen's proposal to abolish parole with crime-prevention ideas of their own on Monday: more money for education, social programs and reviving inner cities.
``Our cities need help. Our prisons are not the place to start,'' Norfolk City Councilman Joseph N. Green Jr. told a panel of black state senators and delegates during a public hearing here.
Nineteen other speakers hammered out virtually the same message during the 2 1/2-hour hearing at Norfolk State University.
The session was organized by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, whose members contended that the governor and most other white politicians have ignored the feelings of African Americans during the statewide parole-reform debate.
Abolishing parole is the centerpiece of the Allen administration's crime-prevention program. It will be the subject of a special session of the General Assembly, beginning Monday.
The black caucus, however, hopes to counter the Allen proposal by mobilizing African Americans to contact their legislators.
The caucus will hold a second public hearing today at 7 p.m. in the Richmond City Hall. It may ask the General Assembly for more hearings once the special session begins.
``This is one of the most important issues that affect our communities,'' Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, told the nearly 100 people, most of them black, who attended Monday's hearing.
Crime prevention has become a key issue among African Americans because most Virginia inmates are black, and young black males are committing a growing number of crimes.
While black caucus members and speakers at the hearing said they favored tough sentencing for criminals, they also asserted that many prisoners needed to be rehabilitated and restored as productive members of society. ``The NAACP supports that if you break the law you do the time. But we want it done in a humane manner,'' said Paul Gillis, Area 2 chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He urged more emphasis on parental and community responsibilities as the best way to prevent crime.
Other speakers also criticized Allen's plan:
Del. William P. Robinson Jr., D-Norfolk, cautioned that the end of parole and construction of more prisons have many hidden costs that will prevent Virginia from adequately addressing other needs, such as transportation and higher education.
``It will carry us down the road of fiscal irresponsibility,'' he said. ``I think the public should understand we are not talking about costs in a vacuum.''
Del. Henry L. Marsh III, D-Richmond, declared: ``Minorities will pay the price for the abolition of parole in the form of decreased services but receive none of the benefits.''
``We're trying to fix this problem at the wrong end,'' said Carlos A. Howard, president of the 35th Street Merchants Association in Norfolk's Park Place neighborhood. He urged government support of small inner-city businesses as a way to provide jobs and healthy role models for new generations of blacks.
Jacqueline McDonald, who lost two sons to inner-city murders and then formed Mothers Against Crime, said many black children turn to crime because they do not have productive alternatives. ``I am angry, but I am angry at the system,'' she said.
James Rivers, a substance abuse counselor in the St. Brides Correctional Center in Chesapeake, warned that abolishing parole would further burden crowded jails and overworked jail employees.
Although most speakers were black, a few whites joined the procession of opponents to Allen's plan.
One white man, Christopher Shema of the Virginia College of Criminal Defense Attorneys, said he had come to see the criminal justice system as ``a rigged game'' against black defendants.
But he urged the black caucus not to fight Allen's parole-abolition plan as a racial issue. ``What will get attention is the costs,'' he said. ``They're selling people a lot of smoke.'' ILLUSTRATION: CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
Virginia Del. Jerrauld Jones of Norfolk and state Sen. L. Louise
Lucas of Portsmouth confer before the start of Monday night's public
hearing at Norfolk State University. The session was organized by
the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.
KEYWORDS: PAROLE VIRGINIA by CNB