THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 8, 1995 TAG: 9509080488
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
State legislators and local officials will break ground today for a $72 million regional jail that will serve Norfolk, Newport News, Hampton and Portsmouth.
The 875-bed facility, scheduled to open in 1997, could hold as many as 1,500 inmates - including those men, women and juveniles with special needs or who require special management.
Work on the 38-acre site began three weeks ago as contractors started clearing trees on the north side of Elmhurst Lane in the Hattonsville Redevelopment Project area.
``All four (cities) had a pressing need for inmate space,'' said Roy W. Cherry, executive director of the Hampton Roads Regional Jail Authority. ``This regional facility is an economic answer to that.''
A Feb. 8 survey of local and regional jails statewide by The Virginian-Pilot revealed that the average jail exceeded its rated capacity by 85 percent. Hampton Roads' jails were among the most overcrowded. Part of the overcrowding was caused by the state's failure to remove from local jails felons who were sentenced to at least three years in prison.
The new facility for the four localities will be a ``self-contained city'' that resembles an office building more than a jail.
``They didn't want it to look like a jail,'' said Steven Kunin, a project manager who helped design the facility. ``It's a jail, but we think it's a very attractive jail.''
The closest residential area is at least a half-mile to the northwest, Kunin said, and the facility will be obscured from view by trees and other landscaping.
Designers took a ``no-frills'' approach to keep costs at a minimum, Kunin said, but they still tried to make the facility as attractive as possible to meet the concerns of local officials.
The building will have reinforced walls, floors, ceilings and no window openings wider than 5 inches. Inmates will not be allowed on the outside grounds, but they will have recreation time in a yard enclosed within another security structure.
There will be five levels of security, as well as visual, physical and auditory monitoring.
``This is a maximum-security facility,'' said Newport News Sheriff Clay Hester, chairman of the regional jail authority. ``It's virtually escape-proof.''
There is room to double the size of the regional jail - meaning it could accommodate 3,000 inmates. The city's permit, however, requires that any future expansion receive City Council approval. by CNB