THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 23, 1995 TAG: 9502230345
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
A rally to protest last week's transfer of 150 state prisoners to a private Texas prison degenerated into a screaming match Wednesday between inmates' family members and a representative of Gov. George F. Allen.
Anne Kincaid, Allen's director of constituent services, waded into the group of about 75 protesters who had gathered on the lawn of the Capitol at 1 p.m. and urged them to blame the General Assembly for the transfer - not the governor.
Allen had asked the General Assembly this year to approve a $402.7 million bond package for prison construction and expansion over the next five years. But a committee composed of members of both the Senate and the House of Delegates has come up with a $106 million compromise package.
That compromise, said Allen, ``will endanger the safety of Virginians.'' And while he regrets the burden placed on families whose loved ones were transferred to Texas, he said, ``they should have thought of that ahead of time.''
On Thursday, Kincaid carried on with Allen's theme.
``Crime is rampant in this nation,'' she cried to the mothers, babies and television cameras assembled on the Capitol lawn. ``I want your anger pointed at the right place. And that is at the legislature which refuses to fund more prisons.''
But Kincaid's words were soon drowned out by the angry voices of the protesters.
``The inmates are being used as hostages to gain support for Governor Allen's prison project!'' shouted the Rev. Marcellus L. Harris of Newport News.
``State terrorism! Kidnapping!'' chanted Maurice Baskins of Richmond. ``It's an artificial manipulation to gain support for prisons!''
Dawn Warren, a 21-year-old Portsmouth woman whose fiance was sent to Texas, held her 2-year-old daughter, Kalli, and castigated Kincaid for sending the child's father away. In response, Kincaid took Warren's hand as television cameras zoomed in and said: ``I know how you feel, honey.''
When Kincaid retreated, Warren glared after her. ``She does not know how I feel,'' she said.
A number of the protesters denounced Allen's parole board, whose get-tough policies have cut the parole grant rate by more than half and caused a backlog of at least 2,000 state inmates in city and county jails.
``If the parole board got off the stick and let some of these men out, they wouldn't have to send inmates to Texas,'' said Nancy Johnson. Her husband, said Johnson, is a first offender serving the third year of a 12-year sentence for embezzlement.
The protesters also voiced concern about new prison policies that limit visitation privileges to eight hours a month and restrict the diets of inmates being punished for infractions. Such inmates, they said, are daily served a single brick containing a baked mixture of wheat, barley and meat. Inmates call the brick an ``Angeloaf,'' for Allen's director of prisons, Ron Angelone.
KEYWORDS: PRISON CONSTRUCTION VIRGINIA STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
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