THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606010214
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 76 lines
It's 2:30 a.m. Time for breakfast in the City Jail.
That's too early to feed inmates, says Councilman Herbert M. Collins, who is leading a charge for more council oversight of the jail, which houses some 1,200 men and women.
But Sheriff Robert J. McCabe says the jail's inmates have been fed breakfast from 2:30 to 5 a.m. for two decades.
An antiquated kitchen and the need to transport prisoners to courts in time for trials all over Hampton Roads requires such a schedule, McCabe says.
The battle over feeding times is one of several between Collins and McCabe that have become part of a larger dispute between the council and the sheriff over oversight of the City Jail.
Beside feeding schedules, Collins accuses McCabe of charging prisoners too much for snacks, toiletries and outside telephone calls.
A majority of the council has asked the council-hired city auditor, Betty Logan, not only to examine the finances of the jail's canteen fund but also to observe food preparation and other aspects of the jail operations.
Mayor Paul D. Fraim, in a May 23 letter to McCabe, wrote that a financial audit can include reviewing operations of the jail that may affect its financing.
McCabe has no problems with the financial review, but he draws the line on council tampering with day-to-day operations.
``I fear they are treading on territory they don't have a right to, which is telling me how to operate the jail,'' McCabe said in an interview Friday.
McCabe, in a May 9 letter to Fraim, said he worried that some council members were conducting ``a political witchhunt'' based on partisan political grounds rather than concern for inmates.
McCabe is Norfolk's first Republican sheriff in modern times. Many council members, although officially non-partisan, have ties to the Democratic party. Councilman W. Randy Wright ran unsuccessfully for clerk of Circuit Court as a Democrat, a bid supported by Fraim, Collins and several other council members.
Collins is close to Del. William P. Robinson Jr., who earlier this year unsuccessfully pushed a law that would have limited the jail's use of discretionary funds, such as the canteen fund.
The dispute over the so-called canteen fund has a history. The fund refers to the roughly $500,000 the jail takes in annually through the sale of snacks, toothpaste, underwear and other items. Sheriff David K. Mapp, McCabe's predecessor, was accused of misusing the fund by keeping it off the books.
Collins, elected in 1994, says he is only concerned about prisoners.
``I felt like he was exploiting the prisoners,'' Collins said. ``I was getting phone calls from friends and relatives of the prisoners. It's not political.''
The dispute over feeding schedules may be solved when the new eight-story addition to the jail opens this November, said George Schaefer, jail spokesman. The facility has a better kitchen and more elevators for transporting food, he said, which will allow the staff to serve breakfast more quickly - and therefore start the meals later.
It's not clear how the question of council review of jail operations will be settled. Each side agrees that, under state law, the city may audit the finances of the jail once a year. But each side also cites state codes that they say support their point of view.
Control of the jail is a likely spot for disagreement due to the nature of the office. McCabe is an elected official, a constitutional officer, responsible to voters, not the City Council. But the city provides $2 million of the jail's $17 million budget. The rest comes from the state.
McCabe says the council attempted to distance itself from jail operations during Mapp's tenure, and asks why the council is only now showing an interest.
It's because he is a Republican, McCabe said. ``I don't think it matters what kind of positive change we accomplish here,'' he said.
Fraim, in an interview, said there was no indication of wrongdoing by the sheriff and that the dispute was partially an attempt to define the role of the city auditor.
``I wouldn't call it an argument,'' Fraim said. ``We are trying to conduct business to everyone's satisfaction.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY JAIL by CNB