PLAN WOULD PUT MORE OFFICERS IN VA. SCHOOLS

The State Crime Commission got the ball rolling yesterday on a plan to
place trained police officers in Virginia's 606 public middle schools, high
schools and alternative schools.

Commission staff will draft legislation that would put School Resource
Officers in one-quarter of the schools each year over a four-year period.
The most troublesome schools would receive the first officers, said
Kimberly J. Echelberger, a senior policy analyst.

The resource officers would be sworn personnel hired by the local law
agency for enforcement and security in schools. Currently, the state funds
77 School Resource Officers, and a federal grant pays for another 56.

Full funding for the program would be more than $27 million a year. For the
first phase, $6.9 million would be needed for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

In other matters, the crime commission tabled until next year a proposed
state constitutional amendment aimed at easing the process for felons to
win back the right to vote.

The amendment, which could still go to voters in 2004, would automatically
restore the right to vote to nonviolent felons 10 years after their release
from incarceration or the date of their conviction if they were not imprisoned.

The commission tabled the matter so it could study what mechanism would be
needed to restore the rights automatically. A proposed constitutional
amendment has to be passed by two sessions of the General Assembly with an
intervening election, so no action was required this year. At least four
bills related to restoring felons' rights have been prefiled for the coming
legislature.

Virginia has one of the most difficult processes for restoring rights. Only
the governor can restore the rights and, under current policy, felons must
wait five years after they have completed any parole or probation periods
after imprisonment.

Felons can apply to the secretary of the commonwealth for restoration, a
route that takes about a year, or their local circuit court, which takes
about 90 days. In either case, the governor has the final say.

Virginia has about 270,000 felons. From 1986 through 1998, the state's
governors approved 1,743 applications for the restoration of rights. From
midyear 2000, when the circuit court procedure became available, only 26
felons had their rights restored through the courts.

"My concern is how paltry a figure it is," said state Del. Brian J. Moran,
D-Alexandria, chairman of the Crime Commission task force that examined the
problem.

Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., R-Fairfax, pointed out that the last time a
similar question was placed before voters in 1982, it was soundly defeated
by a 2-1 margin. That proposal was for the restoration of all rights, not
just voting rights, and also made no distinction between violent and
nonviolent offenders.