Virginia Beach sheriff sues state over importing inmates

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An inmate in a dormitory block of the Virginia Beach City Jail on Tuesday afternoon rests on his bunk. (Bill Tiernan | The Virginian-Pilot)

Sheriff’s issue
Sheriff Paul Lanteigne said that in April, he told the state he would file a lawsuit if state prisoners were not cleared from the city jail by June 1. State law requires that felons sentenced to one or more years in custody be transferred from local jails to state prisons within 60 days, but it is rarely enforced.

State’s plan
In an effort to boost revenue, the state plans to import as many as 1,000 inmates. About 300 inmates from Wyoming have already been accepted under a two-year contract that will generate up to $18.5 million.

By Aaron Applegate
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 4, 2008

VIRGINIA BEACH

Sheriff Paul Lanteigne on Tuesday sued the director of the state Department of Corrections, claiming the agency is breaking the law by renting its cells to other states while Virginia inmates remain in area jails at the expense of local taxpayers.

The suit is in response to a state plan to boost revenue by importing as many as 1,000 inmates. About 300 inmates from Wyoming have already been accepted in a pair of southwest Virginia prisons under a two-year contract that will generate as much as $18.5 million.

“It doesn’t seem logical they should take out-of-state inmates when the state code tells them to take their own,” Lanteigne said.

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the DOC, said renting bed space is necessary to meet a state budget shortfall and to avoid layoffs in the prison agency.

He said Director Gene M. Johnson would not comment on the litigation.

Gordon Hickey, spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, called the lawsuit “disingenuous.” He said Johnson and Lanteigne had been working out an agreement over the past two weeks to move prisoners.

“We’re going to start moving them out, and he (Lanteigne) knows it,” Hickey said.

Lanteigne said he warned state officials in April that he would file a lawsuit if state prisoners were not gone from the Virginia Beach Correctional Center by June 1.

“Gene Johnson called me up a week ago to fix this, and I said, 'Gene, we need you to take your people out by June 1,’ and they’re not out,” Lanteigne said.

State law requires that felons sentenced to one or more years in custody be transferred from local jails to state prisons within 60 days, but it is rarely enforced.

As of Tuesday, the Virginia Beach Correctional Center had 67 inmates that should be in state prison, Lanteigne said.

The lawsuit, which said such inmates cause the jail to be “severely overcrowded,” seeks to have the state take custody of its prisoners. It was filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.

In Northern Virginia, Fairfax County also is considering legal action, Supervisor Michael R. Frey said. The county has about 100 inmates that belong in state prisons, he said.

“When you see them doing it as deliberate strategy and dumping the financial burden on us, it’s just unconscionable,” he said.

Virginia state prisons house 33,500 inmates at 43 facilities.

Lanteigne’s action echoes a spate of lawsuits filed in the mid-1990s by sheriffs from cities including Virginia Beach and Portsmouth.

Former Virginia Beach Sheriff Frank Drew and former Portsmouth Sheriff Gary Waters both won their 1995 lawsuits and forced state officials to claim their inmates from the cities’ jails.

Lanteigne and other sheriffs argue that when the state is slow to pick up inmates, it costs local taxpayers.

The state pays Virginia Beach $14 a day to house inmates that should be in state prisons, but it costs the jails $75 a day, Lanteigne said.

In local jails statewide, there are about 1,800 inmates who should be in state prisons, Traylor said.

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com