THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280473
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY AND LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
As the General Assembly resumed debate Tuesday over how to overhaul Virginia's criminal justice system, a poll found that 52 percent of the state's voters favor a plan to abolish parole. But support for the proposal is divided sharply along racial lines.
The results of a Mason-Dixon Virginia Poll showed that 31 percent of voters are opposed to Gov. George Allen's Proposal X, and 17 percent are undecided.
The poll found that 58 percent of the whites surveyed favored the plan, while 57 percent of the blacks opposed it. State Sen. Henry Marsh III, D-Richmond, a member of the Black Legislative Caucus, said the racial split does not surprise him.
``The governor's propaganda has been aimed at this kind of division,'' Marsh said. ``He's been inciting the fear of white Virginians. This tells us it's working to some extent.''
Blacks comprise about two-thirds of the roughly 20,000 inmates in Virginia prisons, and groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People say Proposal X does nothing to address the social problems that helped put them there.
The poll results came after a series of public hearings around the state seemed to indicate eroding support for Allen's plan to end parole and increase sentences for violent offenders.
But despite the opposition and growing concerns about how much it will cost, legislators are expected to approve some version of Proposal X before facing re-election next year. According to the poll, voters consider crime the most pressing issue in the state.
Thirty percent of the 827 voters surveyed said crime is their greatest concern.
At a public hearing before two Senate committees in Richmond Tuesday morning, only nine of the first 50 people who spoke supported Proposal X. But at a second hearing Tuesday night, most of the speakers seemed to favor the plan. Opposition had been strong at some of the other 11 public hearings that legislators held across the state after recessing a special session last week.
When the legislative session resumed Tuesday, new questions surfaced about how much the plan will cost taxpayers. Allen's initial estimate was $1 billion. Last week, a House budget committee study predicted it could cost more than twice that much. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee offered a second study suggesting that both estimates are off base.
Under the plan, ``actual capital and operating costs are likely to be significantly higher than estimated by executive agencies,'' the committee said in a 71-page report.
The report stopped short of putting a price on Proposal X, warning that long-term costs are difficult to estimate and often unreliable. Among the complicating factors cited were the difficulty of finding appropriate prison sites, the uncertainty of future construction costs and the unknown price of double-bunking inmates.
Allen has asked the General Assembly to approve $367 million worth of Virginia Public Building Authority bonds to pay for immediate prison construction. Most of the remaining money can come from voter-approved bonds, he has said.
But future borrowing estimates do not include any provisions for highway projects, higher education or jail reimbursements, the Senate Finance Committee report noted.
``The purpose of this (report) was to demonstrate the fiscal impact of this thing so the public will understand what we're dealing with here,'' said Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, Senate Finance Committee chairman.
According to the Mason-Dixon poll, Virginians are divided over the best way to pay for the 27 new prisons required by the Allen plan in the next decade.
Twenty-eight percent favored issuing bonds, 17 percent preferred cuts in other government programs, and 8 percent said they would be willing to pay more taxes.
Some legislators are predicting that Proposal X will pass no matter what it costs.
``None of the concerns they (the Senate Finance Committee) have raised, in my opinion, are enough to derail the program,'' said Sen. Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach.
``Nothing's going to stop this thing,'' said Del. Jay DeBoer, D-Petersburg. ``They could prove tomorrow that Proposal X causes breast cancer and we would still vote overwhelmingly to approve it.''
On Tuesday, Allen appeared confident that Proposal X will survive the scrutiny of the Democrat-dominated General Assembly.
``The point is to keep them focused and to get them to act by the end of the week,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: MASON-DIXON VIRGINIA POLL
Staff graphic
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
KEYWORDS: PAROLE REFORM VIRGINIA POLL by CNB