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

DATE: Sunday, September 11, 1994             TAG: 9409100343
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 
SERIES: FACING THE FEAR
        PAYING THE PRICE
        This series is a combined project of The Associated Press, the Newport
        News Daily Press, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times & 
        World News, and The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

VIRGINIA NEWSPAPERS COOPERATE ON SERIES

Murder - and the fears it spawns - is spiraling out of control in Richmond, but stands at zero for the year in Roanoke.

Virginia is a relatively low-crime state, but it already spends more than many others putting felons behind bars.

To that maelstrom of contradictions, add a governor who was elected, in part, for his tough talk against crime, and a new administration racing to reform Virginia's criminal justice system.

But are the fears justified? Are Virginians willing to pay the price of Allen's sweeping changes? What are the root causes of fear and violence? Is the Virginia General Assembly willing to spend the political capital necessary to back the governor?

Prompted by the immediacy of these issues, and the special session of the legislature scheduled to begin Monday, Sept. 19, Virginia's largest daily newspapers combined forces with The Associated Press to confront the contradictions and dig beneath the public relations sound bites of the Allen program.

The papers - the Daily Press of Newport News, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Roanoke Times & World-News and The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star - and AP assigned a team of veteran reporters and editors to this task.

Working since June, they've shared notes, contacts, telephone numbers, and expenses; crunched their own poll; combed the commonwealth to interview more than 90 Virginia lay people in a series of community conversations, and written and rewritten what is a ground-breaking series. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

BOB BROWN/Richmond Times-Dispatch

MORE WALLS, MORE WIRE

Topping Gov. George F. Allen's proposal is abolishing parole. But

his plan also calls for revised penalties, a ``truth in sentencing''

plan that would require convicts to serve at least 85 percent of

their time, and a major prison-building program to supplement

existing facilities like the Dilwyn Correctional Center in

Buckingham County, above.

KEYWORDS: PAROLE REFORM VIRGINIA by CNB