
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994                    TAG: 9406190028 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B5    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940619                                 LENGTH: RICHMOND

ALLEN TO UNVEIL PLAN FOR PAROLE REFORM ON PUBLIC-TV BROADCAST

{LEAD} Tune in on Tuesday as Gov. George F. Allen launches a public-relations campaign for his sweeping plan to eliminate parole and overhaul criminal sentencing.

Allen and the members of his Commission on Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform will outline their plan - known as Proposal X - during an 8 p.m. television call-in show to be broadcast live on all the state's public television stations.

{REST} The legislature will consider the proposal, which is still being developed, at a special session in September.

``We're going to make the case to a broader audience that we've been making to smaller audiences - violent criminals need to spend more time in prison,'' said Richard Cullen, a Richmond lawyer and one of the leaders of the commission.

The commission's plan calls for eliminating parole, the practice of releasing prisoners after serving only a fraction of their sentences. It would also reduce from 300 to 60 the number of days each year that a prisoner can reduce his sentence for good behavior.

But Allen has yet to unveil the price of the venture. If parole is eliminated, the state will either have to invest heavily in new prisons, find less expensive forms of punishment for nonviolent offenders or create some combination of the two.

The commission is working on the latter idea.

``Obviously there will be some capital expense,'' Cullen said. But the cost ``will be nowhere near'' the multibillion dollars that has been suggested by some observers, he said.

The Allen administration plans a major campaign in July and August to acquaint Virginians with the plan and to rally support.

Democrats in the legislature say they'll be watching the developments carefully. ``We need to go at this with a significantly reasoned, educated mind,'' said House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County.

If the commission recommends reducing penalties for a lot of drug crimes, as has been suggested, ``they're in essence saying that what we did in the '80s was wrong,'' Cranwell said.

by CNB