THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610050201
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 86 lines
Prison crunch could be eased, temporarily
The rapid growth of Virginia's prison population will ease in the next few years because violent crime is on the wane, the state's top public safety official said.
But a projected surplus of 299 prison beds in 1999 is expected to quickly disappear. By 2006, the state will need 14,517 more beds beyond those already built or under development, according to figures released Thursday.
Secretary of Public Safety Jerry W. Kilgore said the projections ``prove parole abolition is working and the governor's anti-crime initiatives are working.''
After increasing 28 percent from 1988 to 1993, violent crime has declined 12 percent, Kilgore said. He said police have told him that potential criminals know they will serve longer sentences.
However, figures provided by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Research show that all offenses - violent and nonviolent - began dropping in 1991, before Gov. George F. Allen took office, and leveled off in 1994-95.
In a projection last year, corrections officials estimated that there would be 29,963 state inmates in June 1996. The actual number turned out to be 28,743.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Cannonball heisted
FREDERICKSBURG - It was just a typical Civil War cannonball, worth $100 to $150 to a collector.
But to the James Monroe Museum, the cannonball was literally part of the architecture - until vandals pried the ball from the museum's brick facade this week.
The 12-pound cannonball did not crash into the front of the museum during a battle.
Museum officials believe it was bolted to the wall during the late 1930s when the museum was owned by the late Laurence Gouveneur Hoes.
Still, museum director John Pearce said, it was a symbol of Fredericksburg's Civil War heritage.
Mary Washington College campus police located an antique dealer who bought a cannonball this week. The dealer sold the cannonball to a California tourist Thursday.
FAIRFAX
City manager under fire
The manager of Virginia's most populous locality is in danger of losing his job, in part because of mistakes that added $455,000 to the cost of a computer contract, members of the Board of Supervisors said.
Six of 10 members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors told The Washington Post their faith in William J. Leidinger's management skill has been shaken and that they will consider dismissing him.
Leidinger, 56, acknowledged Thursday that the contract was mishandled, and he apologized.
WOODBRIDGE
Ridership on Northern Virginia's commuter rail plunged 10 percent in August compared with last year, a decline that officials blame on new car pool lanes on Interstate 95 and persistent delays on the railroad.
The drop was fueled by a 14 percent decline in riders on the line from Fredericksburg to Union Station in Washington and a decrease of nearly 4 percent on the Manassas line, Virginia Railway Express officials said.
The officials blamed the shrinking Fredericksburg ridership on competition with cars and vans after a new access ramp to the I-95 car pool lanes opened in May.
PENINSULA
NEWPORT NEWS
Chief will retire
Police Chief William F. Corvello plans to step down Dec. 1.
``It's time to go,'' Corvello, 64, said Thursday. ``I'll be 65 in a couple of weeks and of late I feel that.''
A former state police superintendent, Corvello came out of retirement in 1994 to stabilize a department shaken by the killings of two officers. One was working undercover when he was shot in a botched sting. Also:
WILLIAMSBURG
A judge has postponed the sentencing of Richard Wescott Weaverling, a former church baby sitter who pleaded guilty in August to molesting three children. Defense attorneys said they needed more time to arrange for a mental health expert to testify.
KEYWORDS: CHILD MOLESTATION PRISON VIRGINIA POPULATION by CNB