THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170548
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Nineteen-year-old Bruce Givens called his mother in Richmond late Wednesday night. From Texas.
``He said, `I'm in Texas,' '' recalled Evelyn Givens. ``I said, `Where?' He said, `Texas.' I said, `Texas? How'd you get to Texas?' ''
The last time Givens had checked, her son - convicted of a shooting last year - was in the Southampton Classification and Reception Center in Capron, waiting to be transferred to another Virginia prison.
``I took a plane,'' Bruce Givens told his mother.
A first offender with a record as a model prisoner, Givens was among 150 Virginia state inmates bused to Richmond International Airport on Wednesday.
The men were loaded - shackled and handcuffed - into a Department of Corrections-chartered Air Miami plane. Once airborne, they received information packets explaining their fate: They were on their way to Beaumont, Texas, to become inmates at a private, 872-bed prison under contract with the state of Virginia.
According to state corrections director Ron Angelone, the inmates were sent to Texas ``because of the unacceptably high number of state inmates being housed in local jails.''
Virginia's city and county jails are packed with thousands of inmates who, by law, belong in state prison. But because of severe overcrowding in the prisons, there is no room for them.
The crisis, brought on by the low rate at which Gov. George F. Allen's parole board has been releasing eligible inmates, shows no signs of abating. To hold the dam until more prisons can be built here, Allen's proposed budget seeks funding to ship 650 more prisoners out of state.
The prospect of seeing more prisoners sent out of state enrages Jean Auldridge, director of Virginia CURE (Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants), an inmate advocate organization.
``They're the ones who are not letting anyone out,'' said Auldridge. ``They've caused this problem of overcrowding, and now they're making it look like it's a bigcrime problem. But the problem has been caused by this administration.''
It cost $27,000 to fly the inmates to Texas, said Jim Jones, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections. The state will pay the Newton County Detention Center $43 a day per inmate for their upkeep. According to Jones, it would cost roughly the same amount to keep the inmates in Virginia.
The cost of sending all 800 inmates out of state until new prisons can be built in Virginia is estimated ``at around $17 million,'' said Edward Morris, deputy director of corrections.
All of the 150 inmates flown out Wednesday had been recently taken from city and county jails to classification centers to await placement in a prison. All were low-security prisoners with no history of discipline problems, no special medical or mental health needs and at least two more years to serve, Jones said.
Any prisoners flown out in the future will probably have similar backgrounds, he said.
Because the Department of Corrections does not plan to make any provisions for the families of inmates to visit them in Texas, serving time there will isolate them from `the most important tool they have for turning their lives around,'' said Auldridge of CURE.
``And to ship them out without even notifying their families or letting them see their families is cruel,'' she said. ``These are nonviolent, no-risk prisoners and they couldn't even see their families before they left. How would you feel if your loved one was sent to Texas? Nobody has the money to go down there.''
Steve Pershing, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, agreed.
``These are human beings with ties and bonds like everyone else,'' he said. ``When we get in trouble, we turn to those who are close to us for support and encouragement. It's not different for someone behind bars. If anything, their need is greater.
``Sometimes I feel as though many in our society would be happy if everyone suspected of crime were just shot in the head at the time of arrest.''
Evelyn Givens doesn't have a car, doesn't drive and has never been on a plane. When her son was in Southampton, she took the bus from Richmond twice a month to visit him. Now she doubts she will see him again until he is released.
``It's far away, but you never know,'' she said. ``It may be for the best. He don't know no one there. He won't be around the people that he has been with in Virginia. So maybe he'll go there and learn a trade or go to school. I miss him. I hate to see him go. But if it helps him better himself, that's good.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
State prison inmates are searched Wednesday before boarding a plane
for Texas at Richmond International Airport. State officals hope to
send 800 inmates out of state to ease prison overcrowding, at a cost
of about $17 million.
KEYWORDS: PRISON OVERCROWDING VIRGINIA by CNB