Pittsylvania County NAACP outlines inmate move concerns

CHATHAM — The Pittsylvania County branch of the NAACP and county officials are worried about what types of inmates will come to Green Rock Correctional Center from Pennsylvania — and what the state will do to allay residents’ concerns.

That’s why they met Wednesday with officials from the Virginia Department of Corrections in the Pittsylvania County Economic Development Office in Chatham to grill them about the deal to transport 1,000 prisoners from the Keystone State to Green Rock.

Area officials’ main concerns are: uncertainty over the inmates’ and their visitors’ security risk to the community; the crimes they have committed; whether the state will implement public-relations efforts to alleviate citizens’ concerns; the burden on area families whose incarcerated loved ones will be sent to other facilities to make room for the Pennsylvania prisoners; how long the prisoners will stay at Green Rock; and whether Green Rock will become a frequent center for similar, future deals.

“We may become the prison of choice,” said Hank Davis, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors.

Davis asked if the state could find a way to rotate local prisoners in and out of Green Rock while the Pennsylvania inmates are there “so we don’t always get the butt end, so we don’t get the short end of the stick.”

Sherman Saunders, mayor of Danville and executive director of Pittsylvania County Community Action, wanted to know what level of inmates will be housed at the facility and how the state defines a level three inmate. Today, Green Rock is a level three, medium-security facility.

Jeff Dillman, warden at Green Rock, said the Pennsylvania inmates will be “substantially” the same level. The classification refers to the level of supervision the state feels the inmate needs, said Gary Bass, chief of operations to the Department of Corrections.

Department of Corrections officials said the choice the state faced was stark: either begin taking in inmates from other states or close more prisons and cut more jobs in the commonwealth. Since October 2008, Virginia has lost 700 corrections staff and 2,400 inmates, said Buck Rogers, assistant deputy director for operations for the Department of Corrections.

When George Allen was governor, the commonwealth built new prisons and had beds available for rent for other states, Rogers said. Instead of closing facilities during the current recession, the state decided to rent out the beds.

Rogers said the contract with Pennsylvania will be signed by Tuesday and inmates will begin to be transferred here — 125 at a time — next week and will be there for 3-5 years. There are now 400 inmates left at Green Rock, which usually holds about 1,000 prisoners.

“It’s not something we wanted to do,” Rogers said. “(But to keep jobs) we felt it was the best way to go.”

Inmates will go back to Pennsylvania before they are released.

Rogers said the state is trying to ensure the approximately 110 inmates from Pittsylvania County are sent to prisons not too far away, including those in Buckingham, Dillwyn, Lawrenceville, Powhatan, Mecklenberg, among others.

Willie Fitzgerald, head of the Pittsylvania County NAACP, asked Rogers: “Would you want this (the prison transfer) to happen in your community?”

Fitzgerald also expressed frustration that state officials did not talk to community members before making the deal with Pennsylvania.

“We had to request that you come to us,” Fitzgerald said.

Bass said defining a level three inmate is complex. An inmate imprisoned for life for murder can become level three if he demonstrates good behavior, or a prisoner serving time for a low-level, non-violent crime can end up a higher security risk due to prolonged conduct problems while incarcerated.

In addition, different states have varying classification systems, Bass said. A level three may identify a type of prisoner in Virginia, but something different in California or Pennsylvania.

“Levels don’t mean anything, you have to look at criteria,” Bass said.

Bass said Virginia has closed eight prisons during the current, but will gain 100 prison beds from the deal with Pennsylvania.

An 800-bed prison in Chesapeake has been sitting vacant with no funding and the commonwealth recently sent 300 Wyoming inmates back to their home state. Money from the contract with Pennsylvania will enable the state to use those 300 beds and open up the Chesapeake facility, Bass said. The 1,000 beds used for Pennsylvania inmates at Green Rock will leave 100 more beds for the commonwealth, Bass said.

Fitzgerald also expressed concern that drug-dealing friends and relatives of prisoners may follow or visit them at Green Rock, creating a security risk and increasing crime in the area. The inmates sent to Green Rock will be those with few visitors, Bass said.