DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997               TAG: 9703060310

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY AND JON FRANK, STAFF WRITERS 

                                            LENGTH:  122 lines

CRITICS RALLY AGAINST NEW FACILITY FOR THE PINES PORTSMOUTH PLANNERS DELAY ACTION ON PERMIT

Portsmouth residents upset about recent escapes and criminal activities by runaways from facilities operated by First Hospital Corp. are mobilizing to prevent construction of a 72-bed residential center for juvenile offenders in the Brighton neighborhood.

A representative of four civic leagues said the groups plan to pack public hearings and meetings to show their opposition to the center, which would be built by a subsidiary of First Hospital. At least one Planning Commission member also opposes the project at the Brighton campus of The Pines Residential Treatment Center.

The Portsmouth Planning Commission delayed action Tuesday on a permit that the center's operator, First Corrections Corp., will need to build the facility. While that meeting was under way, the state's Department of Juvenile Justice was removing all 24 residents from Tidewater Residential Institute in Norfolk following the weekend escape of two youths from the center.

That facility, also operated by First Corrections, was being used to house juveniles until the Portsmouth center is built.

But if some Portsmouth residents have their way, that won't happen.

About 10 civic league members attended the Planning Commission meeting to oppose the center, and four to support it. The commission voted to delay action on a use permit until its meeting April 1.

``If this thing is going to get on the agenda anywhere, we're going to put some people in that municipal building,'' said Louis Whitehead, president of the Portsmouth Council of Civic Leagues, which represents four civic leagues in the west end of the city. Whitehead said the civic leagues comprise about 16 percent of the city's population.

State officials on Wednesday said that a contract has not been signed for the Portsmouth center, and its fate is unknown.

``At this point, we can't even think about that facility,'' said Cari Brunelle, a spokeswoman for the Department of Juvenile Justice. She said she could not speculate on whether problems at the Norfolk center would have an effect on the proposed Portsmouth facility.

A spokeswoman for First Corrections Corp. issued this statement Wednesday: ``First Corrections Corp. fully supports the program designed by the state Department of Juvenile Justice and will continue to work with them in exploring juvenile habilitation opportunities. Currently we are negotiating a Sept. 1 deadline previously set for the relocation of Tidewater Residential Institute.''

First Corrections says it has community support for the project. It has sent city officials a copy of a Feb. 5 letter from Reggie Allen, president of the Brighton Civic League, endorsing plans for the residential program in Brighton.

Allen said in the letter that 65 people attended a Feb. 3 civic league meeting, ``and not one expressed opposition to the project. We wholeheartedly support the endeavors of the . . . program on the Brighton Campus of The Pines Residential Treatment Center.''

Allen could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Raymond Turner, one of seven Planning Commission members, said he opposed the Portsmouth facility and will vote against approving a change in the land-use permit that would allow it to be built.

``I don't want us to be the prison for the state of Virginia,'' Turner, an eight-year veteran of the commission, said Wednesday. ``We want it put out of the city.''

Turner said there are other, more remote sections of the state that are better suited for a juvenile corrections facility than inner-city Portsmouth.

``There is plenty of land, out in the open and free of people,'' Turner said. ``The city needs revenue, but we don't want just any kind of revenue.''

City Councilman J. Thomas Benn III agreed that the growing opposition to the facility presents a dilemma.

``You've got to listen to the citizens, because the citizens are what count,'' Benn said Wednesday. ``This council is doing everything it can to listen to their concerns. But City Council is going to struggle to do the right thing on this.''

Whitehead, the spokesman for the council of civic leagues, said recent newspaper articles about problems at the program near DePaul Medical Center, at The Pines and at a Tucson, Ariz., program, all operated by First Hospital, raise troubling security questions.

``I didn't know the problems were this bad until they brought me these newspaper articles,'' he said. ``When we read the Tucson article, it seems to be a pattern.''

Stories recently published in The Virginian-Pilot reported that in 1995, residents ran away from The Pines at the rate of nearly one every five days. In the past few years, at least five residents or former residents of The Pines have been accused of violent crimes in Hampton Roads.

A Tucson campus of the Pines was forced to close last summer shortly after residents rioted, causing at least $10,000 in damage and forcing police to arrest eight youths who were receiving treatment there.

The most recent incident was the weekend escape from the Tidewater Residential Institute near DePaul. Joseph Medina, 18, of Prince William County, remained at large late Wednesday after escaping from the residential program with another youth.

The youths apparently made up their beds to look like someone was sleeping in them, then forced their way out of a window and jumped from the second floor to freedom. The other youth, a 16-year-old also from Prince William County, was recaptured Sunday.

``You can say they are youthful offenders, but once they escape, who is to say he or she will remain non-violent?'' Whitehead said Wednesday.

The Portsmouth residential program had been slated to go to the City Council this month, but now will be delayed at least until April.

``We can put a substantial number of people (in public meetings), and we will,'' Whitehead said. ``We don't want any expansion of The Pines, in any form. Anything that requires a use permit, we will oppose.''

James J. Gildea, Portsmouth's planning director, said his department recommended the granting of the use permit after making some provisions offered by First Corrections conditions of the contract. He said Wednesday he stands by that recommendation.

The necessary modification is to a permit granted to First Corrections in October when the company received approval for a 225-bed minimum- to medium-security juvenile correctional center.

Gildea identified what he considers important distinctions from the Norfolk program. The proposed location in Portsmouth is segmented from the community and already has a similar institutional use, he said. Also, the proposed building would be new construction, not merely an adaptation of an existing building.

``The working relationship that (First Corrections' parent company) has with the neighbors and with City Hall and the fact that it's new construction give me some comfort,'' he said. ``Clearly it has a higher profile now than it did. Despite what I've identified as sources of comfort, I'm not totally sure they will be persuasive. . . . I think it depends on the assurances that (the company) can give the community.'' ILLUSTRATION: VP MAP KEYWORDS: FIRST CORRECTIONS CORPORATION

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