THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The Allen administration has had its troubles with the prison system. It's had successes, too, though they take a back seat to problems that lend themselves to partisan purposes as General Assembly elections draw nigh.
There was the gun in the typewriter of a death-row inmate and the Corrections Department's initial cursory investigation into this breach of security.
There's now the inmate who bribed prison employees for favors with the promise of big bucks from his supposed inheritance. That's not exactly an embarrassment for the governor: The Corrections Department quickly learned of that scam and turned it into a sting operation to catch the duplicitous em-ploy-ees.
There were, Governor Allen's office points out, 500 prison escapes and 1,400 assaults by inmates with weapons during the administrations of the three Democrats who preceded this Republican ad-min-is-tra-tion.
As Paul Keve, a former criminal-justice professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, told The Associated Press, who's governor has little to do with security breaches. ``Prisoners are prisoners whether there's a Democratic or Republican administration,'' Keve said. ``Some of the prisoners are very clever and they've had a lot of experience defeating the system. . . . They have plenty of time to think and scheme.''
They also have less inclination now to go to the infirmary when they aren't ill. As of July 1, Corrections Department chief Ron Angelone instituted a co-payment plan for nonmedical services: $5 per doctor visit, $2 per prescription, $2 for each dental visit. In its first month, the co-pay plan raised $32,000 and cut inmate sick calls about 35 percent.
The ACLU worries that inmates will be hesitant to report genuine illness and costs will rise because their illnesses will worsen. They shouldn't be hesitant: The co-pay is waived for indigent inmates and emergency care. Paying jobs within prisons are available to inmates willing to work. Guards are trained to detect, and fellow inmates are likely to report, virulent and/or contagious disease. And the money raised pays for a special ``telemedicine project'' on inmate health.
The prison co-pay is ``no different from what's going on in the real world,'' says Public Safety Secretary Jerry Kilgore. And preparation for the real world - of work and co-pays and the like - is the stuff of which rehabilitation is made. Besides, when it comes to medical care and co-pays, people on the outside are about as much a captive audience as the 23,000 on the inside. by CNB