THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412090619
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Six months into the tenure of Gov. George F. Allen's new parole board, Virginia has the lowest parole-granting rate in the nation and an unexpected $77 million bill to show for it.
The state granted parole to 38.6 percent of eligible prisoners in fiscal year 1993. In fiscal year 1994, the rate dropped to 25 percent. since January, the board has paroled an average of only 16.9 percent, the lowest rate in the United States, according to the National Institute of Corrections.
The reduction has caused a backlog of state prisoners in local jails, an increase in the double-celling of inmates in the state's prisons, and the need to build seven additional work camps next to existing prisons.
According to a report presented to the Senate Finance Committee last week, the total bill comes to $77 million. That's $30 million to pay for double bunking in the state's already-crowded prisons; $23 million for the work camps; $18.4 million to maintain the backlog of state prisoners in local jails; and $6 million for the extra jail staff needed to guard them.
The state is required to pay $14 a day for each state inmate housed in Virginia's local jails. It pays $8 a day for each local inmate and $22 for each jail farm inmate.
Also, the state must provide money to pay an additional deputy for every five inmates over the capacity of any local jail.
The money adds up.
The Norfolk City Jail was built to house 579 inmates but now contains 1,306; 400 of them sleep on the floor, according to Sheriff Robert McCabe. In July - a month when the parole board's grant-rate sank to an all-time low of 5 percent - the jail's population swelled to 1,425.
``That's the most we've ever had,'' McCabe said. ``I contacted the state and told them I was very concerned and that we had reached our absolute limit. The state responded by taking about 200 inmates since June.''
The Department of Justice has threatened to sue McCabe and the city of Norfolk unless the jail's population is reduced to 750 inmates by October 1996.
Once inmates get to prison, the cost of incarceration goes up. The state pays $19,000 per year for each maximum security prisoner; $1,700 for each medium security prisoner; and $13,000 for each of those in work camps. More than 20,000 inmates now live in Virginia's prisons.
In light of these costs, a number of Democratic legislators have charged that the parole board's actions are fiscally irresponsible. But the board's chairman, John B. Metzger, says it's not his job to worry about money or prison overcrowding.
Cost is ``something that must be addressed, but it shouldn't be a criterion for parole,'' he said last week.
Republican legislators, like William C. Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, regard the extra expense of lowering the parole rate as the unavoidable cost of doing business.
``We must provide for the public safety of the commonwealth,'' he said. ``And clearly, the citizens want criminals to spend an appropriate amount of time incarcerated. That's a function of state government, and we must meet that demand.''
The $77 million in unanticipated costs is part of a $350 million shortfall in Virginia's budget. Also included in the shortfall is $70 million to pay for the first installment of a $351 million settlement with the state's illegally taxed federal pensioners, a $121 million overestimation of tax revenues and $130 million to pay for new prisons.
Because Virginia's Constitution forbids any budget shortfalls, Allen must find a way to cover the unexpected costs by Dec. 19, the day he is scheduled to present his recommendations for the state's biannual budget. Officials speculate he will get the money by slashing state agency budgets. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
STAFF
PAROLE TAKES A DIP
SOURCE: Virginia Parole Board
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB