THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501110439
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Virginia Beach Sheriff Frank Drew has filed the first in what is expected to be a flurry of lawsuits by state sheriffs demanding that the state Corrections Department remove its prisoners from overcrowded city jails.
On Tuesday, Drew filed the suit in Virginia Beach Circuit Court demanding that 92 state felons housed in the Virginia Beach jail be taken to state prisons. Under state law, a felon sentenced to three years or more in prison must be moved from a local jail to a state prison within 60 days of being convicted.
But that is not happening often enough, and sheriffs are fighting back, asking the state to obey the law.
Portsmouth will probably sue the state today, seeking the transfer of 84 prisoners. Within two weeks, the Alexandria sheriff will sue the Corrections Department to take about 200 prisoners, and the Richmond sheriff will sue for 100 state felons to be moved, said lawyer Jeffrey Breit, who represents sheriffs in all four cities. More lawsuits are expected.
The spate of lawsuits is the result of Gov. George F. Allen's new parole policy, Breit and the sheriffs said. Six months into the tenure of Allen's new parole board, Virginia has the lowest parole-granting rate in the nation and a growing backlog of state prisoners in local jails to show for it.
``Before the new administration came in, there were maybe an average of 200 prisoners on any given day who were not being picked up'' by the Department of Corrections across the state, Breit said Tuesday. ``Now, since the new administration has taken effect, records show the state is out of compliance by 2,500 to 3,500 prisoners every day.''
On Dec. 19, the last day the Corrections Department had complete figures, the daily average was 2,200 felons awaiting transfer to state prisons, state officials said Tuesday.
Spokesmen for the state secretary of public safety, Jerry W. Kilgore, and the state attorney general, James S. Gilmore, would not comment on the lawsuits.
In fiscal year 1993, the state granted parole to 38.6 percent of eligible prisoners. In fiscal year 1994, that rate dropped to 25 percent. For the first 11 months of 1994, the board paroled an average of only 16.9 percent, the lowest rate in the United States, according to the National Institute of Corrections.
Besides the backlog of prisoners, Allen's parole policy has resulted in an increase in the holding of two prisoners in one-man cells in the state's prisons, the need to build seven additional work camps next to existing prisons, and an unexpected $77 million bill to show for maintaining the inmates.
``We've been trying to work this out for a year,'' Drew said Tuesday. ``On Nov. 22, we reached a maximum of 125 state inmates they weren't moving . . . so we sent them (the Correction Department) a threatening letter.'' Soon afterward, the state moved about 40 of those prisoners, Drew said.
The Virginia Beach jail, certified by the state to house 563 inmates, now holds 913, Drew said in the lawsuit.
``It comes down to this - the squeaky wheel gets the grease,'' Drew said. ``The state has no system set up for correcting the problem. . . . They are in absolute violation of state law. You know that if I were violating the law, Richmond would come down on me with both feet.''
Breit said the cities are paying the price for Allen's policy. ``Why should Virginia Beach have inmates stacked on the floor when the state . . . won't take them?'' he said. ``The governor wants to be the law-and-order governor, but he wants the city to pay and he gets the credit.''
This is not the first time a local sheriff has sued the state to relieve overcrowding. But it is the first time that so many sheriffs, who normally use diplomatic channels, have acted at once.
In October 1993, Portsmouth Sheriff Gary W. Waters filed suit demanding that the state remove 68 inmates from his overcrowded jail. Before the case went to trial, the state moved them out, Waters said Tuesday.
Now the problem has returned, he said. The Portsmouth City Jail, rated to hold 197 prisoners, held 518 on Tuesday. Eighty-four of those were state felons.
``If the governor's not going to help us, why should we help him?'' Waters said.
In Norfolk, the jail - built to house 579 inmates - had an inmate population of 1,425 in July, the same month when the parole board's grant-rate fell to an all-time low of 5 percent.
The state responded by taking 200 inmates since June, Norfolk Sheriff Robert McCabe has said. But most of those transfers occurred after the U.S. Department of Justice released a report calling the ``grossly overcrowded'' Norfolk City Jail a serious public-health threat where living conditions are ``offensive to elementary concepts of human decency.''
The U.S. 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. MEMO: Staff writer Lynn Waltz contributed to this report. by CNB