THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412180350
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EMPORIA LENGTH: Long : 154 lines
Anxious phone calls from the Eastern Shore jammed the lines at the Greensville County offices. Over and over, the callers asked the same question: What is it like to live with a maximum security prison?
Finally, the Greensville County administrator forbade his staff to take any more calls. Enough was enough. They couldn't get any work done.
Then, 26 people from Northampton County arrived last Wednesday to take a look at Greensville for themselves.
The delegation bombarded waitresses, shopkeepers and Laundromat customers - anyone in sight - with questions. And, they grilled Greensville officials.
In the end, the visitors from Northampton County - where the state wants to build a 1,267-inmate maximum security prison - came away with a picture that was filled with shades of gray.
Prisons simply aren't a black-and-white issue. They do bring jobs, said the Greensville residents, but the jobs can be dangerous and humiliating. Northampton could negotiate for major concessions from the state, but local businesses probably won't sell much to the prison.
Greensville's 2,400-inmate prison complex opened in 1990 near Jarratt, which is about five miles northeast from the county seat, Emporia. For every positive factor associated with the prison, Greensville suffered a balancing negative - or two, or three.
Overall, Greensville County officials and those in Emporia think the prison has brought positive changes. ``The impact on the community has been zero as far as its reputation,'' said Ted Povar, city manager of Emporia.
``I think it was a very smart business decision, and I'd do it today,'' Povar said.
On the up-side, the Department of Corrections can pour millions into the local infrastructure, most frequently by improving water and sewerage systems. Greensville officials encouraged Northampton's supervisors to get as much as they can from the state in exchange for putting a prison near Cape Charles.
``My only advice is to make the biggest wish list you can. If you don't ask for it, they won't give it to you,'' said Dave Whittington, Greensville County administrator. ``We got everything we wanted, which tells me we didn't want enough.''
The Department of Corrections pumped $10 million into expanding Greensville's water and sewerage treatment systems. Miles of water and sewerage lines were laid, some of which detoured through the county's new industrial park. No businesses have located there yet, but those utilities are essential for attracting industries.
Greensville officials said the county can put residential development along the new water and sewer lines, too.
John Warwick, president of Overman Associates, told the visitors from Northampton all about Greensville's treatment plants, and encouraged them not to ``miss the opportunity'' to improve their own utilities.
Overman Associates is a Virginia Beach engineering firm hired by Greensville to negotiate with the Department of Corrections when it was building prisons in those counties. The company also was hired by Cape Charles when the Eastern Shore town was building its new water treatment plant.
To some Northampton residents, Overman's involvement in the prison decision smacks of collusion.
``It is absolutely inappropriate for Overman Associates to be involved at this stage,'' said Bill Parr, with Citizens Opposed to the Prison. ``They have not been hired by Northampton County. We need unbiased information.''
The prison brought a number of other good things to Greensville. The county's population, about 12,000, has increased slightly since the facility was built. Before that, the area was loosing people. There are 10 percent more children in the school system and enrollment is up at the community college.
Greensville collected business license revenue from the contractors who built the prison. Local motels fill when opponents to the death penalty protest executions there. And since the prison isn't going anywhere, it's considered a recession-proof industry.
Now, Greensville hopes to locate a county jail on the state prison grounds. It won't save money building the jail, said Whittington, the county administrator, but Greensville will save on the jail's operating expenses because it will share some services, like the kitchen and medical facilities, with the prison.
The downside of Greensville's prison experience is slippery and steep. Although the Department of Corrections most frequently locates facilities in areas that are desperate for jobs, positions at the prison were soon perceived as dangerous and stressful.
``I'll be honest with you, I don't think they have enough money to pay me to work there,'' said Sheriff Earl Sasser.
Prison guards are not armed, said Sasser, although the inmates frequently make, and use, weapons. Prisoners physically assault guards on a regular basis, he said, and verbally abuse them constantly. A favorite inmate trick is to mix feces with urine and throw the mixture into the guards' faces.
``The inmates have more rights than the officers,'' said Helen Jefferson, a Jarratt resident whose husband works at the prison complex. The jobs are tough enough to begin with, she said. But now, the Corrections Department is cutting back on staff, and the guards are overworked.
``If a riot pops out, some officers are going to get killed,'' she said.
The guards can't fight back legally. But nine guards at Greensville Correctional Center were indicted Dec. 6 for allegedly beating prisoners or directing inmate goon squads to beat them.
Sasser said the local court system is jammed. Inmates commit more crimes than the county residents, he said, and local lawyers are appointed to defend them. Few prisoners have enough money to pay.
Inmates correspond frequently with the clerk of court, requesting copies of documents. They ask for jury trials often, said Sasser, putting a strain on the county's small pool of jurors. Sheriff's deputies serve warrants and process inmates when they commit more crimes, he said, taking that time from other law-enforcement activity. But the state compensation board did not give Greensville any additional money for police staffing.
Greensville officials say the county has a rental housing shortage made worse by incoming prison employees looking for homes. And they warned Northampton's board not to expect economic benefits to trickle down to the poorest local folks.
It would be unrealistic to think that welfare recipients without skills will get prison jobs, said Sam Bush, head of Greensville's Social Services Department.
Bush said his department had seen a 10 percent increase in its case load since the prison was built. About 40 families had relocated to Greensville to be near inmates.
Greensville officials warned Northampton of a string of other potential problems: Watch out for the heavy construction traffic while the prison is being built. Be prepared for the bright prison lights, and for the noisy shooting range it probably will have. Don't provide the facility with emergency rescue services, your volunteers won't be prepared to deal with maximum security inmates.
And don't be surprised if the Department of Corrections enlarges the prison without asking permission.
``It's not all good or all bad,'' said Sam Bush about the prison. ``But it hasn't been a windfall.''
Many of the prison's employees live in other counties, and take their paychecks with them. And businessmen in Jarratt say that the Department of Corrections has a centralized procurement system that buys little from local vendors.
So much for the promised economic boom. But folks in Jarrett, the town closest to the prison, say something else as well, something equally as surprising. It seems that the people there, if they don't have family members working at the prison, don't really know it exists, or don't care.
``I don't think anybody thinks about it anymore,'' said Britton Flynn, who works in a Jarratt hardware store. ``They could build another one here and it wouldn't bother me. Tell them, if they don't want it in Northampton, we have some more property here we can stick it on.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Above, officials discuss the impact of prisons. From left: David
Whittington, Greensville administrator; attorney Russell Slayton;
Tom Dixon, Northampton supervisors' chairman; Sam Bush, Greensville
director of social services; and Andy Evans, Greensville planning
director. Below, Bill Parr, of a Northampton anti-prison group,
questions a Greensville official.
A van filled with Northampton County supervisors sits at the
Greensville Correctional facility waiting to tour around the prison.
The state wants to build a 1,267-inmate maximum security prison in
Northampton, so residents examined Greensville last week.
by CNB