THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 26, 1994 TAG: 9409260092
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: [Parole]: Facing the Fear, Paying the Price
This series is a combined project of The Associated Press, the Daily
Press of Newport News, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times
& World-News, and The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON AND ANNE GEARAN
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 137 lines
If Gail Whitney, Guy Levy and Audrey Milteer were voting on how to attack crime in Virginia, they would have started not with parole but with children.
Long before the career criminals targeted in Gov. George Allen's plan to abolish parole and lengthen prison terms ever came before a judge, these Virginians would have used money, education and the power of the community to keep them out of trouble.
``Where I have to disagree with the governor is that I think it should be part of a greater plan,'' said Levy, a Newport News dentist. ``If our resources are limited, it's easy to put everything into one pot and have nothing left over for the other side of the issue.''
A panel of 16 people from across Virginia endorsed the broad themes of Allen's plan Saturday but insisted it be coupled with more programs for prevention and rehabilitation - either now or later.
Some thought action on the Allen plan should be delayed until it could be considered along with other reforms. But most, feeling helpless in the face of rising violence, thought it would be OK to abolish parole and restructure sentencing now and follow up later with other actions.
``It's got to be better than what's been happening,'' said Fred Nice, a Newport News building contractor. ``Amen,'' added Russell Powell, a Franklin businessman.
The group meeting in Richmond over the weekend disagreed about some of Allen's remedies and questioned whether the estimated $1 billion cost will be worthwhile.
``It saddens me to think we can sit in this room and put human beings' lives into numbers and dollar amounts, what it's going to cost,'' said Milteer, a Franklin day-care worker. ``If he hasn't been taught something in the time that he was in that cage, then he's going to come out and be the same bird that was caged in there all that time, but with more anger in him.''
The panel saw little difference between Allen's ideas and a rival parole abolition program offered by legislators. The General Assembly will consider both plans in a special session this week.
The panel representing a variety of geographic, racial and social backgrounds was assembled by Virginia's largest newspapers and The Associated Press.
The 16 were participants in a series of eight discussions held around the state last summer when Allen's plan still was being written.
The group heard presentations Saturday from Richard Cullen, co-chairman of Allen's Commission on Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform, and from Lane Kneedler, a lawyer who worked on the rival plan from the General Assembly.
Old Dominion University criminologist Lucien Lombardo gave a history of other reforms and compared Virginia's plan to those of other states.
All but a handful of the participants recommended legislators adopt Allen's ideas. But most were frustrated the plan doesn't do more to deter crime or help criminals become better citizens.
The panel agreed that Allen's plan nibbles at the edges of the crime problem. Broken families, a lack of discipline and personal responsibility, along with inadequate education and community indifference are greater problems that neither proposal addresses, participants said.
``We want them to know that that's just a start,'' Powell said.
Cullen told the group Allen's plan isn't intended to attack social ills or other roots of crime. Allen has set up another commission to address those issues, he said.
In a five-hour session, the participants attempted to deal with multiple social problems without alienating each other or running up too large a tax bill. Most believed the community should bear much of the responsibility for attacking these problems.
Some like Powell felt, for instance, that the group should state a goal of two-parent families as the best way of raising children. Everyone agreed it was a good idea, but vetoed it as impractical in today's world.
They struggled, too, with the practical effects of Allen's plan on Virginia prisons.
Milteer, whose husband is serving a 45-year sentence for a drug offense, cautioned that the Allen plan would crowd more inmates into prisons that already provide little hope or help to inmates. Her husband cannot find a prison job and has trouble getting books or even writing paper, she said.
Several in the group were worried that the state is rushing to approve a politically popular plan.
``We could just go bumbling into something and pay all this money when we could just wait another six months,'' until the General Assembly has time to draft a better plan, said Whitney, a Richmond fund-raiser.
Allen wants to sign a bill this week in order to install it in January. His program would end parole for inmates sentenced after January and increase sentences for some repeat offenders as much as 700 percent. It also would send some nonviolent inmates to work camps instead of more expensive prison beds. MEMO: Tony Wharton is a staff writer for The Virginian-Pilot; Anne Gearan is
an Associated Press writer.
ILLUSTRATION: SIDE BAR TO THE STORY
RECOMMENDATIONS
A list of the group's recommendations:
On incarceration:
Make punishment swifter
Distinguish between violent and nonviolent criminals in both
treatment and housing
Lock away the most violent without parole
Establish a race-blind approach to sentencing and parole
decisions
Make any action on parole a first step toward a much larger
overhaul of the criminal justice system and social underpinnings of
crime
< On rehabilitation:
Provide meaningful educational opportunities in prison
Monitor educational services for juvenile offenders in state
facilities
Keep inmates busy with quality work programs
Give businesses tax or other incentives to hire ex-convicts
Explore televised/interactive learning between prisons and
community colleges
Make it easier for relatives or others outside prison to provide
educational materials to inmates
Encourage greater community involvement in prisons
On prevention:
Focus government and community resources on children, including
providing ample recreation and education opportunities after school;
removing abused children from bad home situations; using volunteers
to teach self-reliance, decision-making and other skills; having
high community expectations of children
Improve coordination of the services already available to at-risk
children and adults
Develop individual community action plans controlled locally and
tied to state funding
KEYWORDS: PAROLE REFORM SERIES VIRGINIA by CNB