THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 24, 1995 TAG: 9501240267
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
Spurned by their own legislators, Eastern Shore opponents of a new prison near Cape Charles turned to Hampton Roads lawmakers for help. And they got it.
Ten members of the General Assembly, most from Hampton Roads, backed a bill that would give localities much more say in where prisons are built.
The bill was drafted and pushed by Citizens Opposing the Prison, a group formed recently to protest construction of a 1,267-inmate maximum security prison in Northampton County.
Members of COP told the lawmakers that a 108-acre farm was chosen as the prison site because it borders on an overwhelmingly black neighborhood. Members of the General Assembly's Black Caucus couldn't ignore the allegation. They worry that the state will target other poor, minority communities to locate 27 new prisons in the next 10 years.
Del. William P. Robinson Jr of Norfolk sponsored the bill. Co-sponsors are Dels. Thomas W. Moss Jr. of Norfolk, speaker of the House; Jerrauld Jones of Norfolk, chairman of the black caucus; Lionell Spruill Sr. of Chesapeake; and Flora D. Crittenden of Newport News. Sen. L. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.
Other sponsors are Dels. W. Tayloe Murphy of Warsaw; Dwight C. Jones of Richmond; Shirley F. Cooper of Yorktown; and Vincent F. Callahan of McLean. All the sponsors except Callahan are Democrats.
Twenty-three states have laws defining an appropriate prison site. Virginia has none.
``There are just no rules,'' said Bill Parr, an Eastern Shore real estate broker who helped draft the legislation, when he met last week with the Black Caucus. ``The Department of Corrections has begun to discard its own policies because of the need to site prisons.''
The bill requires a statewide comprehensive plan for locating future facilities. It would mandate public notice and public hearings in communities where prisons might be built. And it would require advisory boards to counsel local decision-makers.
Parr and 11 other members of COP combed the General Assembly Office Building last week to find sponsors. They also lobbied to have the proposed prison in Northampton County deleted from Senate Bill 623. The bill would allow a bond issue that would fund the $85 million Eastern Shore project and others. This type of bond issue does not need to be approved by the voters.
Northampton prison opponents unsuccessfully hammered their own lawmakers to kill the project's funding. But Sen. Thomas Norment of Williamsburg and Del. Robert Bloxom of Mappsville both said they would support the prison if the Northampton Board of Supervisors voted to accept it.
``I am going to support the supervisors on whatever they decide,'' said Norment during a videotaped meeting with prison opponents. No vote has been taken by the supervisors.
Last week, the lobbyists crowded into one legislator's office after another, focusing on members of the Black Caucus. Alice Coles, who lives 40 feet from the farm where the new prison might be built, spoke for the group. Coles believes the site was chosen because it is near a black neighborhood.
``There are 1,000 people who live within a quarter-mile of that prison site, with a new elementary school a half-mile away,'' said Coles, who is an African American. ``Five sites were proposed. Four were in wealthy, white neighborhoods. They chose this one.''
John McCluskey, chief deputy director of the Department of Corrections, directed the site-selection process. In a telephone interview, McCluskey said he chose the farm outside Cape Charles because it was for sale, because it had soils that drained well, was not in a tidal surge area, and had access to an existing water and sewerage system.
Charges of racism, he said, are baseless. ``I know of no evidence that supports such a contention,'' said McCluskey.
The $85 million appropriations request is $9 million more than the project was expected to cost. McCluskey said the extra money is a buffer to help the corrections department cope with fluctuations in construction costs.
The $85 million includes funds for bringing water and sewer lines from Cape Charles to the prison but does not include money to pay for any other changes to the local infrastructure, McCluskey said.
Northampton County officials had been encouraged to present the Department of Corrections with a ``wish list'' of improvements to make the prison more palatable. McCluskey said that list had not yet been presented to him. And a bond issue of this type was not the way to get funding for these local projects. Anything built with this money is deeded to the state, he said.
McCluskey was unable to say where Northampton would find funding for its ``wish list.''
One thing he did know. Locating the prison in Greensville County, where the state already owns land and already has prisons, just won't work. Opponents to the Cape Charles site have suggested the prison be built there. But the labor pool in Greensville is stretched already, said McCluskey, and the work force there couldn't fill another 425 jobs.
Bloxom, the Eastern Shore delegate, said he supported Gov. George Allen's parole reforms, and would vote for prison funding to be consistent.
``If Northampton is in there, it's yes. If Northampton is not there, it's yes,'' said Bloxom about his vote. He said the new bill that COP has introduced will further complicate Northampton's decision.
Even if it were passed, he said, the new prison-locating criteria would not be effective until July, long after the board will need to accept or reject the Cape Charles project.
``It's not the kind of thing you want to throw into the middle of a controversy,'' said Bloxom.
But many people in Northampton want more time to study the problem. Frank Wendell, a Cape Charles Town Council member, doesn't think Northampton's supervisors can make an informed decision in the month they have left to study the issue.
``What's the big rush? It's not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,'' said Wendell.``The state needs to build 27 new correctional facilities. We'll have the same opportunity to get one every year for nearly a decade. But once we accept the prison, we'll have to live with it for a lifetime.''
Meanwhile, McCluskey is urging Northampton's supervisors to make up their minds.
``When I talk with them I ask, `Gee, aren't you guys ready to make a decision?' I don't know if you could consider that pressure,'' said McCluskey. The corrections department has supplied Northampton with a lot of information, he said, and the board has made studies of its own.
``You can exhaust these things,'' said McCluskey. ``I'm suggesting it's time to make a decision.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Alice Coles
Color staff photo by Beth Bergman
[Aerial]Site proposed for state prison
Color staff map
Area shown: Site of proposed prison.
Photo by KAREN JOLLY DAVIS
Mary Miller, left, Frank Wendell and Kim Starr of Citizens Opposing
the Prison discuss strategy outside a legislator's office. COP was
formed recently to protest construction of a prison.
KEYWORDS: PROPOSED PRISON EASTERN SHORE CORRECTION FACILITY by CNB