ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Wythe County officials will contact sheriff's offices in Bland, Carroll, Smyth and Grayson counties to see if there is any interest in getting together to build a regional jail.
If not, Wythe County will look into building its own.
Wythe County Supervisors Mark Munsey and Clay Lawrence met Tuesday with Sheriff Wayne Pike on what to do about the county's aging, overcrowded jail. They decided the first step would be to check out regional interest.
Grayson County is part of plans for a New River Valley regional jail, along with Pulaski and Giles counties and Radford. Those localities have formed a regional jail authority, which allows them to get 50 percent state funding. Future regional jail projects will not have this opportunity, because the state has reduced its participation to a maximum of 25 percent funding.
At one time, Wythe, Carroll and Bland counties were involved in the regional jail study. Carroll dropped out because of resident opposition to the jail's being built there. Bland also notified the authority that it no longer was interested.
It appeared last year that a private prison company would build a jail for Wythe as part of a state prison project there. The project generated citizen opposition, and the state awarded the contract to build a 1,500-bed prison to another company in another part of Virginia.
Now, Wythe County is back to coping with the shortcomings of a jail opened in 1926 for a maximum of 14 inmates. It usually has about 30 inmates, and sometimes more than 50.
Pike said he spent about $4,000 rewiring the jail last year. ``You couldn't plug in the computers. There wasn't enough power. It would blow everything,'' he said. Electricity, plumbing and roofing have been continual problems.
It would be impractical to build a new jail at the present site, near Wytheville's recreation park and an elementary school, and with no space to expand. Pike estimated that it would cost about $3 million to build a new county jail and $10 million to build a regional jail.
If the other localities have no interest in a regional jail, Wythe officials will plan to build their own. Pike suggested building it for more beds than it will require, so the county could be paid to house federal prisoners.
That could help the jail pay for itself and eventually become a moneymaker for the county, he said. The county, however, would have to set strict guidelines as to what type of prisoners it would take. Otherwise, he said, overcrowded federal prisons would send their troublemakers or those with medical problems.
``You can be selective. We can say we have X number of beds and these are the type of people we will take,'' Pike said.
The jail committee will meet again Feb. 27.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB