THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030433
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
A Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that Virginia is illegally burdening local jails with inmates who belong in state prisons.
Retired Portsmouth Circuit Court Judge L. Cleaves Manning ordered the state to remove all of its inmates from the Virginia Beach City Jail within 60 days. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in January by Sheriff Frank Drew.
``My intention is to get the state to obey the state law, and the law says that anyone with more than a three-year sentence has to be taken into the (state prison) system. And (the Department of Corrections) has been breaking that law for 10 years,'' Drew said Tuesday.
``They're in trouble,'' Drew said of state correctional officials. ``They've got too many inmates and not enough beds. But the City of Virginia Beach is not responsible for their inmates and the citizens of Virginia Beach shouldn't have to pay for them.''
The Virginia Beach Jail, built to hold 563 inmates, contained 886 on Tuesday. Ninety-four of those inmates belong in state prisons, Drew said.
Although Virginia has been ignoring the 60-day law for years, a recent crackdown by Gov. George Allen's parole board has so overcrowded prisons that more and more state inmates have been backing up in local jails.
Drew's lawsuit, filed in January, is one of six filed against the state by Virginia sheriffs this year. The sheriffs of Portsmouth, Hampton, Newport News, Richmond and Alexandria have also sought relief. Tuesday's ruling was the first in any of the cases.
The ruling came less than six hours after the Department of Corrections flew a third shipment of 154 inmates to a privately run Texas prison in an effort to offset overcrowding in the state's prisons.
Virginia now pays the Newton County Detention Center in Newton, Texas, $44 per inmate - or more than $20,000 a day - to house 457 Virginia prisoners serving time there. In contrast, local sheriffs are paid only $14 per dayto house state inmates.
Responding to Manning's ruling, state Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore said in a press release that his office ``will be reviewing all of the Commonwealth's options before determining what legal and other steps to take.''
``The court's ruling is unfortunate,'' said Kilgore. ``The Commonwealth would face a serious shortage of prison space needed to incarcerate dangerous felons if similar rulings were issued in localities throughout the state.''
Kilgore blamed the problem on the General Assembly for failing to approve the governor's prison-construction program during the last session.
Drew's Norfolk attorney, Jeffrey Breit, disputed that view.
``It's obvious that the secretary is playing politics with these cases,'' Breit said. ``He's trying to garner political capital by blaming the legislature for his own short-sighted policies.''
Breit said he expects the state to appeal Manning's ruling, and has asked state Attorney General James Gilmore's office to let the ruling stand for all four Hampton Roads lawsuits as a way to speed up the appellate process. Breit represents all four local sheriffs. MEMO: A WAVE OF PRISON LAWSUITS\ Virginia Beach Sheriff Frank Drew's
lawsuit is one of six filed against the state by Virginia sheriffs this
year. The sheriffs of Portsmouth, Hampton, Newport News, Richmond and
Alexandria have also sought relief. Tuesday's ruling was the first in
any of the cases.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by PAUL AIKEN, Staff
The Virginia Beach jail, built to hold 563 people, is way over
capacity. On Tuesday, as these inmates gathered to play cards, it
held 886. From left, the card players are Kermith Gordon, on floor,
a state prisoner from Virginia Beach; Jason Preddy, Melvin Day and
Alfred Bell, all of them state prisoners from Virginia Beach; James
Jones, a city prisoner from Virginia Beach; and William Johnson, a
state prisoner from Baltimore.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS PRISONS JAILS
SHERIFFS LAWSUIT by CNB