Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Virginia is illegally clogging local jails with felons who should be in state prisons, a judge ruled Tuesday in the first decision on lawsuits filed by several sheriffs who blame the state for jail crowding.
The ruling by retired Portsmouth Circuit Judge L. Cleaves Manning came on the same day the state shipped another 154 inmates to Texas to relieve crowding. More than 450 Virginia inmates now are serving time in Texas.
Manning's ruling was a victory for Virginia Beach Sheriff Frank Drew. Drew claimed the state has been breaking the law by failing to take to prisons felons who have been in jails at least 60 days and have three years or more left to serve.
The judge agreed and gave the Department of Corrections two months to remove all state-responsible inmates from the Virginia Beach jail. Drew said he had 93 inmates fitting that description Tuesday.
``We've been fighting this battle for four years,'' Drew said in a telephone interview. ``I knew we were right.''
Drew said removing the state's inmates will go a long way toward easing crowding in his jail, which was built for 563 prisoners but housed about 880 Tuesday.
``I know the Department of Corrections has the same problem, but we've got prisoners sleeping on the floor and they don't,'' Drew said. ``I don't think the concrete in their cells is any harder than the concrete in ours.''
Starting in January, sheriffs in Virginia Beach, Richmond, Alexandria and other localities filed lawsuits to force the Corrections Department to remove state inmates from their jails.
Norfolk attorney Jeffrey W. Breit, who represented several of the sheriffs, said local jails were holding an average of 200 state inmates a day before the Allen administration came into office.
Since then, he said, the state inmate population of local jails often has been more than 10 times that number, and Virginia's parole rate has become the lowest in the nation.
John W. Jones, executive director of the Virginia Sheriffs Association, said Manning's ruling could presage similar rulings in the other cases.
``I don't know why the other sheriffs wouldn't win,'' he said. ``I would think the other courts would look at the ruling of this court.''
Drew said, however, that he would not be surprised if the state appeals Manning's ruling.
Attorney General Jim Gilmore had not reviewed the decision and could not comment, spokesman Mark Miner said.
``The court's ruling is unfortunate,'' Secretary of Public Safety Jerry W. Kilgore said. ``The commonwealth would face a serious shortage of prison space needed to incarcerate dangerous felons if similar rulings were issued in localities throughout the state.''
Kilgore spokesman Bill Cimino said local jails housed about 4,240 state-responsible inmates Tuesday, including about 1,200 who by law should already be in state prisons.
Meanwhile, the state for the third time transferred more than 150 inmates to the Newton County Detention Center near Beaumont, Texas.
``Any movement of state inmates makes a difference in the local jail system,'' Jones said. ``The backup of state inmates in local jails is a severe problem. Any effort at the state level will help at the local level.''
Relatives of inmates previously shipped to Texas have complained that the distance makes visits impractical and that the prisoners were being abused. Virginia and Texas authorities denied that inmates are being mistreated.
Corrections Department spokesman Jim Jones said 27 of the inmates transferred Tuesday volunteered for the move. Sixty-four were new prisoners and 63 were parole violators.
Virginia officials in February signed a two-year contract to house prisoners at the Newton County facility, which is run by a private company and can hold up to 800 inmates. The state pays Texas about the same amount it would cost to house an inmate in a Virginia prison.
Texas accepts only inmates convicted of crimes other than murder, rape or other sexual assaults.
by CNB