Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004220147
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
But Murray, head of the Virginia Department of Corrections since 1986, must wrangle with an already strained prison system with 14,300 inmates. The system is expected to grow to 35,740 inmates by the end of the century.
"It's out of my hands," says Murray, who was reappointed recently by Gov. Douglas Wilder. "I have no control [over the growth]. No prison administrator can control that.
"It's a matter that the communities control through the courts, and we don't have much of a choice but to deal with the numbers of people that come to us."
Murray has presided over the largest expansion of prisons in Virginia history, but he concedes more will have to be built. Still, he is not in favor of Virginia trying to build its way out of the prison-crowding crisis.
"We've got a building plan for about $1 billion worth of construction by the year 2000," he said. "But more and more prisons alone are not the answer. I don't think the taxpayers can afford to continue to build prisons at that rate."
The department has new facilities under construction in Greensville and Buchanan counties. But the state also is looking at community-based alternatives to prison.
The General Assembly this year appropriated $69 million for construction of three medium-security prisons to keep 825 inmates each. Legislators also approved the hiring of 99 additional probation and parole officers.
More than 25,000 people convicted of crimes are on probation or parole in Virginia, corrections officials say.
Murray said he believes that people who are dangerous and are repeat offenders should be in prison.
"But I believe that what's happening now is that the courts, others in the criminal justice system, and people in general are beginning to recognize that certain kinds of offenders need to be dealt with in a different way, in which they are punished but not locked away," Murray said.
"Prison isn't necessarily the answer - it really isn't - for some people. That's where community-based programs come in."
A total of 1,062 convicted felons are enrolled in community diversion programs across the state, according to officials.
Under Murray, the department has seen a decline in prison violence and escapes.
Assaults on inmates by inmates dropped from 410 in fiscal 1986 to 131 in fiscal 1989, and inmate assaults on guards fell from 324 in fiscal 1986 to 106 in fiscal 1989.
Escapes dropped from 39 in fiscal 1986 to 18 in fiscal 1989 - the lowest number of escapes since the Department of Corrections was formed in 1974. All were recaptured.
"We've pushed training. We've pushed vigilance on the part of our prison supervisors," Murray said.
"We've stressed the importance of being alert and paying attention to policy rules and regulations, and I think a combination of all those things has helped," he said.
However, the department has not be been trouble-free.
Murders committed by four convicts who had been allowed out of prisons to work led to a retrenchment in the department's work-release and highway-work programs.
Corrections officials stopped the use of convicts for highway work for six months, and when the program resumed only convicts imprisoned for non-violent crimes were allowed to work on roads - and then only under armed guard and in rural areas.
Murray does not plan to run a status-quo prison system and hopes to push programs that will help released convicts make it on the outside.
"It can be individual counseling. It can be something as simple as teaching a person to read and write," he said.
All inmates should have "an opportunity to better themselves so that they don't return to the lifestyle that brought them into prison," he said.
by CNB