HOW MANY PRISONS ARE TOO MANY?

RICHMOND - Construction will begin as early as this fall on Virginia's
first new prison in five years, the start of a wave of prison-building
that includes expansions at two facilities in Hampton Roads. But state
leaders, wary of reliving the prison surpluses of the 1990s, are
divided over how many new facilities are necessary to cure crowding.
During budget negotiations earlier this year, the General Assembly
agreed to fund a new 1,024-bed prison in Southwest Virginia at an
estimated cost of $68.6 million.

Lawmakers also approved a $32.5 million expansion at St. Brides
Correctional Center in Chesapeake that will create 800 new beds and a
$21.9 million project at Deerfield Correctional Center in Southampton
that will add another 600 beds. All three projects are due for
completion in 2006. "We know we've got a need for those and we need
them pretty quickly," said Barry R. Green, deputy secretary of public
safety.

Legislators disagree about whether the 2,400 new beds from the three
projects will be enough.

There are nearly 36,000 men and women in Virginia who have been
sentenced to serve prison time. The 47 state prisons house about
30,500 of those inmates. More than 5,300 men and women convicted of
serious felonies sit in local and regional jails awaiting transfer to
the state system. State officials' goal is to assume responsibility
for those inmates within 60 days after they are convicted and processed.

However, more than 1,700 of those inmates have exceeded that limit and
remain in jails because there are no prison beds available. Officials
with the Virginia Department of Corrections also warn that 841
temporary beds in use at prisons across the state are a threat to
security. Adding to pressure on the system is a state report issued
last summer that predicted the prison inmate population would rise to
42,575 by mid-2008. Crime rates are continuing to decline in Virginia
and the nation, but the state's prison population is expected to grow
because the abolition of parole has caused inmates to serve longer
sentences. Legislators authorized corrections officials to move
forward with plans for a second new prison if the updated forecast,
which is expected to be issued in the next few months, indicates it is
still needed. Lawmakers also instructed the agency to begin scouting
for a location for a third correctional center, but that project will
require further review by Gov. Mark R. Warner and the
legislature.

Some legislators think those safeguards are inadequate to protect the
state from building too many prisons.

"I'm not at all satisfied," said Del. Leo C. Wardrup, R-Virginia
Beach. "We could end up with one or two too many prisons."

Wardrup noted that the governor's budget proposed only one new prison.
The lawmaker said he fears judges are sending too many people to
prison for minor parole violations, and he said building new prisons
will only encourage that practice.

Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, said current projections
suggest that there will be a backlog of nearly 3,000 state inmates in
local and regional jails in 2008 if the state builds only two new
prisons. "I am 100 percent convinced they will be needed," Stolle said
of the three prisons. He leads a panel of the Senate Finance Committee
that oversees public safety budgeting. More prison beds can't be the
only solution, however, he said. The state is expanding two programs
designed to reduce recidivism and to get non violent offenders out of
prison more quickly. One initiative moves inmates who are nearing the
end of their sentences to local jails, where they can be near their
families and participate in work-release programs. The state also is
adding 100 beds at halfway houses for former substance abusers. "It's
important to realize you can't look at one component of the prison
system and address that individually," Stolle said. "Any piece of that
puzzle that's not adequately funded affects the whole system. They're
all linked together like a chain."

In the meantime, preliminary site work for the new Southwest prison
could begin this summer. David Birtwistle , president of Texas-based
Centex Corp., said he hopes his company can begin preparing the
Tazewell County site in July so that construction can begin in the
fall.

State officials have not yet signed a contract with Centex, but its
proposal is the only one under negotiation.

Centex, along with a group of engineering and finance firms, submitted
a proposal in December 2002 to build two prisons and expand the St.
Brides and Deerfield sites.

The companies have spent $50,000 in fees to have their plans reviewed
by corrections officials, and they have begun design work for the
projects. None of the prison-building plans are expected to endanger
the Southampton Correctional Center, one of the oldest buildings in
the state system, Green said. The prison was nearly mothballed in 2002
as a cost-saving measure, but state leaders backed down when the
community rallied to save prison jobs. Corrections officials
acknowledged at the time that the beds in Southampton would be needed
within a few years.