THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080288
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Virginia's prisons have been largely quiet since a Sept. 19 disturbance at Greensville Correctional Center, where inmates set fires and destroyed property on the day legislators met to end parole.
Corrections Department Director Ronald Angelone said he still cannot say whether the disturbance was triggered by Gov. George Allen's plan to abolish parole.
``I have not got the final report,'' Angelone said.
He said some observers might say the no-parole plan prompted the uprising, but ``I think it was an excuse to do the damage they wanted to do.''
Inmates started fires, flooded toilets, flipped ice-making machines, set off sprinklers, broke windows and tore down an interior fence. Damage was estimated at more than $100,000.
Current inmates still will be eligible for parole after Allen's plan takes effect Jan. 1, and Angelone questioned whether the prisoners would conduct a protest for others.
``I can't say this was a sophisticated group of individuals trying to voice their opinion about a group of people out on the street'' who have not been convicted of crimes, Angelone said.
Greensville inmate Michael X. Johnson said the incident at the Jarratt prison was in protest of ending parole. For his role, Johnson was convicted of setting a fire, inciting a riot and damaging property. He is being held in isolation.
Johnson went on a hunger strike last summer, demanding to speak to Allen about his no-parole plan. He never met with Allen, and he said he ended the strike after learning the NAACP and other groups opposed the governor's plan.
Johnson said he still became the center of a protest by inmates who had planned a systemwide, sit-down strike Sept. 19, the opening day of the General Assembly's special session on parole.
He said he asked to be transferred because of concerns the protest could become violent, but his request was denied.
That morning, other inmates began setting fires ``and tearing up stuff,'' Johnson said. He said guards ordered him to put the fires out, but he refused because he was concerned about his safety.
As punishment, he said, he received 60 days in isolation and lost 120 days of ``good time'' that might have trimmed his sentence. Johnson is serving a life term for the 1985 murder and robbery of an Arlington woman. He will be eligible for parole in 1997.
Johnson said he will continue to speak against what he perceives as injustice toward inmates. by CNB