THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505060017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
It's a sorry situation when the sheriffs of Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton, Richmond and Alexandria feel compelled to sue the state in order to get it to obey the law. But that's what's happened as a result of prison overcrowding.
Now a Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of Virginia Beach and against the state. Under state law, anyone sentenced to longer than three years is supposed to be incarcerated in the state prison system. As of July, the threshold drops to two years.
But the state has perennially lacked space and has solved the problem by leaving the overflow in local jails. When the tough parole policies of the Allen administration made things worse, local sheriffs sued to get relief. Virginia Beach Sheriff Frank Drew is the first to win. The state has been given 60 days to get its inmates out of his jail.
Localities are right to complain. There's no reason they should be forced to cope with excessive loads of inmates who belong in state facilities. Virginia Beach is now holding 94 inmates who should be in the state correctional system. Throughout the state, hundreds of inmates who should by law already be in prisons are housed in jails.
It's particularly ironic that the Allen administration, a zealous promoter of law and order, should be found in violation of the law on the issue of housing prisoners. It sends the message that citizens must obey the law but the state can flout it. That's the wrong message.
The most troubling aspect of the affair is the fecklessness of state officials. The overcrowded jails come as no surprise to anyone. As Sheriff Drew notes, the Department of Corrections ``has been breaking that law for 10 years.'' The abrupt reduction in parole by the Allen administration predictably intensified the strain. Yet there's been no serious attempt to stop imposing on local jails.
Now that a judge has told the state it's violating the law, you'd expect responsible parties to take action. But there's little enthusiasm for revisiting the hard line on parole, for rethinking mandatory minimum sentences, for investigating alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders or for budgeting enough money to meet the need.
It's true that some inmates are being shipped out of the state and some new prison space is being added. But these are stop-gap measures. Until the governor and the General Assembly craft a mutually-agreeable long-term solution, the supply of inmates will continue to exceed available space.
Yet neither Allen nor Public Safety Secretary Jerry Kilgore has shown much inclination to act. Kilgore has bemoaned the court's ruling and says he'll appeal it. He has blamed the General Assembly for not giving Allen all he requested for prison construction. But none of that helps move the state nearer to a solution. And the problem will worsen in July when more inmates now in jails become a state responsibility.
States that have failed to deal with prison overcrowding have found their correction facilities under the control of courts. It could happen here. It's time for Virginia to get its act together.
KEYWORDS: JAIL PRISON VIRGINIA STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS by CNB