THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 10, 1996 TAG: 9602100261
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
The Virginia House of Delegates has approved legislation guaranteeing reporters and photographers access to state prisons to interview willing inmates.
The bill challenges recent policy changes by the Allen administration that have impeded efforts by the press to talk with inmates.
``I don't think that the governor wants the public to know what's going on in the prison system,'' said House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk. ``Otherwise, why would he object to the bill?''
``We keep talking about the necessity of operating in the sunshine, but the governor wants to pull down the shades,'' Moss said.
Opposing the bill, Del. Samuel A. Nixon Jr., R-Richmond, said the proposal would take away the keys for control of the state prison system and would pass them to the news media.
Ken Stroupe, the governor's press secretary, said Wednesday that Allen is not in favor of the legislation. That suggests a veto may be in the offing if the bill passes the Senate.
The guarantees' sponsor, Del. Jay W. DeBoer, D-Petersburg, said the bill would protect the right of the press as the public's agent, as well as that of the legislators, to receive accurate information about what goes on in the prison system.
``A legislator probably could enter the facility, but not before he notified the authorities beforehand. Knowing that he was coming, I know that they would sanitize and clean up any deficiencies and candy-coat what he would see.''
DeBoer said that he was aware that The Virginian-Pilot's Laura LaFay is the writer of a story that ``bruised the department's rather large ego. There are others who also have done scathing stories about deplorable conditions.''
LaFay and The Virginian-Pilot's June Arney broke the story last summer of the discovery of a loaded gun stashed in a typewriter of a death row inmate.
DeBoer attached his guarantee in an amendment to a related bill offered by Del. William P. Robinson Jr., D-Norfolk. ``It was done with my blessing,'' Robinson said. The administration's attempted gag on events in the prison system is ``unfortunately characteristic of the shroud of silence'' that is widespread in other departments.
House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, observes that most of the recent disclosures about shortcomings have been precipitated by news stories.
Employees throughout state government are discouraged from talking to legislators. ``We have to rely on the public's watchdog, the media,'' Cranwell said. by CNB