THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 12, 1996 TAG: 9602120046
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
From the roadside, the Princess Anne Executive Park on North Landing Road looks no different than most of the neo-Georgian buildings at the city's municipal center.
The office park's red brick facades and palladian windows reflect the area's strict architectural standards and provide aesthetic relief in a city brimming with vinyl siding and cookie-cutter tract homes.
Now a plan by Twin Star Enterprises promises to transform the complex into the region's first privately run, pre-release and work-release correctional compound - without touching the stately architecture.
The proposal is part of an untested statewide effort to ease Virginia's crowded prisons by contracting with private companies to supervise some prisoners. The idea is that private companies can do some things more cheaply than the state, such as acquiring goods and services, and thus save taxpayers' money.
On Wednesday, Twin Star will present the Planning Commission with its $12.5 million proposal to buy five of the park's six buildings. The company would gut two of them, strengthening the floors, installing break-resistant Lexan plastic behind the glass windows, wiring up security cameras and bolting bars into place.
After the Planning Commission makes its recommendation, the City Council will consider the proposal in March.
If the council approves, the company - under a contract with the
Virginia Department of Corrections - would house up to 260 low-risk prisoners who have between six and 12 months to serve on sentences arising from nonviolent offenses.
A larger building would house up to 230 work-release and pre-release prisoners in 64 cells; the smaller one would be home to 30 prisoners eligible for work-release programs.
The approval process and construction would take up to two years.
Work-release prisoners work their day jobs and return to jail at night and through the weekends to serve sentences for crimes such as drunken driving, petty larceny or the possession of small amounts of drugs. Pre-release prisoners are incarcerated 24 hours a day and are considered one step behind those eligible for work release.
Because the proposed facility would be neither a jail nor a prison - and thus not a fortress - the company says it would accept only prisoners without histories of violence. To qualify, the prisoners would have to meet strict Corrections Department guidelines.
Prisoners would receive skill-building training, learning such things as how to fill out resumes and apply for jobs. Upon completion of their sentences, they would be set free.
The plan is so new that few residents of the surrounding Princess Anne Borough have had time to consider it. In fact, the Planning Commission must create a zoning classification for privately run correctional facilities while it considers changing the existing zone from a neighborhood business district to a conditional office district.
Still, the word has spread among some residents, and after a recent public meeting two neighbors offered a mixed view on how the correctional facility might affect their quiet, rural community at the edge of suburban sprawl.
``I'm not too much for it,'' said David Vandermel, who lives near the site. ``We've already had problems with prisoners from the jail who come up to us, like when we're washing the car, or working outside, and want to know if we have something for them to do . . .
``If everything works out the way they want it, then that would be fine,'' he said. ``But I don't think things work that well already.''
But John E. Parks, a 70-year-old retired Navy cook who lives on nearby West Neck Road, says he sees some opportunity with the project and will not oppose Twin Star's plans.
``I don't see anything wrong with it myself,'' Parks said. ``I think it's all right, might even create a few jobs for people, too. They already got a place at the courthouse for these people and it doesn't seem to intimidate anyone.''
The facility would have 65 employees covering three eight-hour shifts and an annual payroll of $2.5 million. It would spend about $1.75 million in goods and services each year. Visitation would be limited to Saturdays and Sundays.
For about five years, the sheriff's office has run a work-force and work-release program from a corner section of the office park. Work-force prisoners mow municipal lawns and pick up roadside litter as part of their sentences. The program is housed in the park's sixth building, the one Twin Star would not be buying.
The sheriff's office program, which can handle up to 115 prisoners, is so unobtrusive that some Princess Anne residents aren't aware of its existence.
``I'd be a hypocrite to be against (Twin Star),'' said Sheriff Frank Drew. ``I have one right there in the same complex. I also live near there, within two blocks. I don't have a problem with it so long as the prisoners are not maximum-security people.''
Prisoners housed in the sheriff's office facility are classified as minimum- and medium-security risks, and the same would apply to the Twin Star inmates.
``If they put in small-time criminals,'' Drew said, ``I don't think the public will ever know they're there.''
Russell L. Boraas, Virginia's newly appointed private prison administrator, said the plan is part of a statewide effort to privatize some functions of the Department of Corrections.
Virginia currently does not have a working, private pre-release program.
The 1995 General Assembly authorized the Department of Corrections to contract for up to 3,800 beds of private prison space, 950 of which would be designated pre-release and work-release beds. Twin Star is applying to house only a portion of those inmates.
``People are legitimately concerned any time you talk about a facility like this in the community,'' said Boraas, an attorney who previously served in the state attorney general's office.
``I can't say who will be in the program, but I can say who won't,'' he said. ``You won't get rapists, murderers, armed robbers, all those violent people . . . And you have to walk a pretty straight and narrow line in the prison anyhow. We have few people who qualify for this program.''
At the center of Twin Star's proposal is president George R. Hale, a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Marshal's Service, the security arm of the federal court system. The company's vice president is Jack Dewan, a former administrator with the sheriff's office. Hence the name, Twin Star.
The project, which is being financed with private capital, is Hale's first venture into private business.
He understands that residents may have concerns. But unlike traditional state facilities, the Twin Star compound would have greater control over who is incarcerated.
``We won't have the bad ones, if you will,'' Hale said. ``It'll be inmates who are finishing their time and want to go home. They want to get a life.''
Hale expects that the prisoners would be Hampton Roads residents who could live closer to home as their release date approaches.
To help smooth the way for the project, Hale has begun a careful roll-out of the project, opening his plans to the community in small meetings, including one involving the school district because it has two buildings in the area: North Landing Elementary School and a vocational training center.
Plans have been shown to the Historical Review Board, and Hale's company has promised not to add guard towers, spotlights, razor wire or fences that could mar the office park's appearance.
``All additions and modifications will be pre-approved by the Historical Review Board,'' Hale said.
``This is not going to be a jail.'' ILLUSTRATION: PROPOSED CORRECTIONAL CENTER
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SOURCE: Twin Star Enterprises Inc., Virginia Beach
KEYWORDS: PRIVATE PRISON by CNB