THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511260100
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ZION CROSSROADS LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Virginia's Department of Corrections will begin building its fifth women's prison next month in northern Fluvanna County to double its space for female inmates.
The $48.8 million prison will open in the summer of 1997 for 1,200 inmates. It will have about 500 employees.
The prison will take inmates from some of the other state women's prisons and new prisoners in a projected increase of women inmates, a Corrections Department spokeswoman said. It is planned to house minimum-, medium- and maximum-security inmates.
It will be built along on U.S. 250, where the department ran a field unit for minimum-security inmates from 1952 to 1991. The prison compound will take up just over 23 acres inside a perimeter fence on the 108-acre property.
The prison is to be organized around a courtyard and will include nine buildings and a softball field. Facilities will include a medical and mental health building, education and programs buildings and a building for food service, a bakery, laundry, commissary, vocational shops and a future prison industries area.
The project hasn't been without controversy. Corrections officials explored building the prison in the Fork Union area in the southern end of the county, but some residents there opposed the idea. County voters in February 1994 rejected a referendum that would have supplied water for the project.
A spokeswoman said the department ``found that it was in its best interest to use land (it) already owned.''
The prison will need an estimated 250,000 gallons of water a day, corrections officials say. The current plans call for water to be drawn from Mechunk Creek at peak flow times and to be stored for later use.
Although county supervisors are satisfied that the department has accommodated most of their concerns about the project, there is a lingering concern about the water supply, Chairman Len Gardner said.
``We're not confident there will be enough water to meet their needs over the long term,'' he said.
Willie Gentry, Virginia Department of Transportation resident engineer for Louisa, said his department and corrections people are still discussing the use of the highway right-of-way along U.S. 250 for the pumping station and water pipeline. Plans for turn lanes to be built at the prison entrance also are being completed, he said.
The Corrections Department will conduct an information session at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the board room of the Fluvanna County administration building in Palmyra. by CNB