Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 27, 1995                   TAG: 9508280008
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ON PRISONS; THEY AGREE, MORE OR LESS, BUT YOU'D NEVER KNOW IT

But what voters hear may not always be particularly useful in understanding what's really at stake.

The Republicans' rhetoric - taken at face value - would lead voters to believe that Democrats aren't interested in building any new prisons and would rather turn murderers and rapists loose to kill and rape again.

The Democrats' line, on the other hand, would lead voters to believe that Republicans want to go on a borrowing binge that would leave schools impoverished and the state with more prisons than it needs.

Actually, both parties agree the state needs to build more prisons than it now has.

Both parties even agree that over the next six years, the state needs to open at least 21 new prison facilities.

What's more, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly and the Republican administration have even set all 21 of those projects in motion.

So what's all the fuss about?

The campaign rhetoric tends to obscure, rather than illuminate, the real differences between the two sides - mostly, the esoteric details of financing the state's prison-building program.

Republicans want to borrow the money by issuing bonds. Democrats, adhering to "pay-as-you-go" want less borrowing and more cash up front.

Republicans also want the General Assembly to commit now to a 10-year prison-building program that would provide full funding for not only the 21 projects already in the pipeline but six other state prisons beyond that.

Democrats, fearful that the administration may be overestimating the number of prisoners Virginia will have to house over the next decade, warn that the state should go slow with prison-building until it's clear the facilities are actually needed.

Those aren't the kind of clinical details about prison-building most candidates are eager to talk about - not when both sides can capitalize on voters' twin concerns about crime and education by framing the issue in a more emotional way.

Today in Horizon, we take a closer look at some of those details and how the public's impression of the issue - some might say misimpression - is changing the way politicians cast their campaign messages.

Keywords:
POLITICS