Dan Genz, The Examiner
2008-06-19 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Gov. Tim Kaine scuttled a lucrative plan to house 1,000 out-of-state inmates in Virginia prisons, bowing to pressure from county officials who charged the state had no room to import prisoners.

The decision will not kill the controversial contract to hold 300 inmates from Wyoming, who are already in Virginia’s custody, but forced state officials to break off negotiations with other states and federal agencies.

The reversal came after Virginia Beach sued to block the plan and Fairfax County officials said the state was trying to make money at the expense of local governments.

Because the state was depending on millions of dollars in payments from other governments to balance its budget, Kaine’s decision opened a $12 million annual hole in the Virginia Department of Corrections spending plan.

“There’s $12 million we thought we were going to have that we’re not,” said Gordon Hickey, the governor’s spokesman. “That’s something we’re going to have to deal with.”

Kaine explained to sheriffs in a letter Tuesday that he was unaware of their concerns until after the budget was final.

The state’s jail population reached 1,800 inmates above state guidelines, Kaine wrote. “While this number is not high compared to historical averages, I am sensitive to and will attempt to remedy the concerns that I have received from some jails.”

The Wyoming contract triggered outcry in April as local jail officials charged the deal came when state prisons were already over their limits and taking too long to retrieve inmates from county facilities.

“I was never opposed to them housing out-of-state prisoners,” Fairfax County Sheriff Stan Berry said Tuesday. “I just didn’t think it should be at the expense of keeping state prisoners in local jails.”

State Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said the agency will follow directions from Kaine, but that it is not clear how the budget savings will be found.

One cost-saving measure under consideration is to delay for as much as two years opening the already completed 800-bed expansion to St. Bride’s Correctional Center in Chesapeake to defray staffing and operations costs, said Maj. Barry Green, deputy secretary for public safety.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com