Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 16, 1995 TAG: 9510160067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Republicans believe punishing criminals is the best way to prevent them from committing more crimes.
Democrats say educating kids so they can look forward to holding down meaningful jobs is the best way to prevent them from becoming criminals in the first place.
The subject of crime - and what the state government should do about it - presents voters with two clear choices in November's election for all 140 seats in the General Assembly.
Both Democratic and Republican candidates say it's important to punish as well as to prevent crime. But in their rhetoric, as well as in their records and campaign promises, the candidates tend to lean one way or another.
Some do more than lean.
Steve Newman, the Republican candidate for the state Senate seat that covers Bedford, Bedford County, Lynchburg and Amherst County, talks the toughest of all. "All the bleeding hearts want to teach criminals how to stop raping and pillaging Virginians," he said. "I want to make sure we keep the rapers and pillagers away from Virginians after they've decided on that path."
He and other Republicans say Virginia already is spending a lot on crime-prevention programs, but the best thing to do is to hand down longer sentences and build more prisons. "The single most effective form of prevention is keeping these violent career criminals behind bars so they cannot commit more crimes," said Trixie Averill, the GOP challenger to House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County.
Meanwhile, Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, talks tough in a much different way. "The fact that 70 percent of our prison inmates are high school dropouts should strongly remind us that education, or the lack of it, is indeed a significant statistic contributing to our crime problem," he said. "Being tough on crime means providing for our educational needs."
Or, as Cranwell put it: "The best medicine for juvenile crime is a good education, which equals a good job."
Many Democrats volunteer that they backed Gov. George Allen's plan to abolish parole. But for the most part, Democrats on this campaign trail this fall talk almost exclusively about education - specifically reducing class sizes in "at-risk" neighborhoods so teachers can give students more individual attention.
Republicans address public safety issues much more directly - albeit more politically.
Averill has been one of the most vocal. She used a visit by Attorney General Jim Gilmore to embrace proposals to revamp the state's juvenile courts, shifting their emphasis from rehabilitation to punishment. "Current Virginia law looks first to the welfare of the criminal in juvenile cases," Averill said in Aug. 22 speech at a fund-raising luncheon. "It says so right in the code books, if you can believe that."
She has also taken the rhetorical lead in charging that Cranwell "undermined the governor's plan to abolish parole when he led the fight to refuse funding for adequate prison space."
Republicans aren't quite presenting the full picture on the prison debate, though. Actually, there's bipartisan agreement on how many prisons Virginia needs to build between now and 2005.
The real differences between the two parties on prison issues mostly concern how to pay for those prisons - and when.
Republicans want the state to act now to fund a 10-year prison-building program, and to pay for most of it by borrowing. Democrats, fearing the state might wind up building too many prisons, say Virginia should go slower. So far, Democrats have prevailed, with the General Assembly providing construction funds for some prisons and only allocating planning money for others. Democrats also say the state should fund most of its prisons on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Cranwell puts his objections to Allen's prison-building plan this way: "I have been unwilling to incur enormous sums of debts on a massive prison-building campaign based on computer projections of prison population."
Nevertheless, prison-building remains a popular theme for Republicans to use as a way to paint their rivals as soft on crime.
Last week, GOP challenger Newell Falkinburg blasted his opponent, Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, calling the Roanoke Democrat's record on crime "dismal and embarrassing."
As one of his examples, Falkinburg charged that Woodrum voted against measures that would allow a statewide referendum on prison-building.
But Woodrum countered that the bill would have given blanket authority for half a billion dollars in prison construction without specifying how or where they would be built.
"I don't believe in mortgaging our children's future on something that they don't have a clear and present need for and we can't project," he said. "One thing we don't need to do is overbuild prisons. I voted for sane prison construction without putting a glut on the market."
For more information on where the General Assembly candidates in Western Virginia stand on public safety issues, see A8.
Staff writer Leslie Taylor contributed to this report.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB