INDEPENDENCE — As John Garman walks the hallways and cellblocks of Virginia’s newest prison, he is met at every turn by eerie silence.
Prisons are noisy places, and by now this sprawling, 1,024-bed complex should be a cacophony of buzzing electronic gates, metal clanking on metal, and hundreds of voices raised above the din.
But four months after the Grayson County prison was completed at a cost of $105 million, it sits empty — the consequence of a declining number of inmates statewide, and a reduction in state dollars to lock them up.
Having a new prison without prisoners is a striking turnabout for Virginia. The state’s inmate population of about 38,000 has nearly doubled since 1994, when the General Assembly voted to abolish parole and to embark on a prison-building boom.
In the past two fiscal years, however, the number of inmates has declined for the first time in recent history, dropping by 2.8 percent.
At the same time, the ongoing fiscal crunch has forced the Virginia Department of Corrections to trim its $1 billion budget. The state has eliminated nearly 2,500 prison beds in the past two years, in part by closing four correctional centers, including ones in Botetourt and Pulaski counties, according to a report from the House Appropriations Committee.
It’s not unusual for states to shut older prisons as crime drops and public concern shifts to the troubled economy, said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a national group that promotes criminal justice reform.
“Corrections over the past 25 years has become an increasingly big component of state budgets, to the point that it’s competing for funding with education and other core services,” Mauer said. “And you can’t have it both ways anymore.”
What’s more unusual, he said, is for a brand-new prison like the one in Grayson County to be mothballed.
Garman, a regional director for the Department of Corrections, acknowledged as much during a recent tour of the facility, which has yet to be named and could remain empty for two years or longer.
“It’s an unusual circumstance for the department, needless to say,” Garman said. “But it is what it is, and we’ll deal with it the best way we can.”
That means keeping the electricity running and paying a skeleton staff to maintain the 252,000-square-foot complex. And it means a prison built for $105 million is now costing taxpayers nearly $2,000 each day it remains empty.
Surge never came
Six years ago, Virginia’s prisons were packed.
And the state’s inmate population of 35,000 was projected to top 46,000 by 2010, the General Assembly was told in a report from the secretary of public safety.
Lawmakers responded in 2004 with funds for two medium-security prisons in Tazewell and Pittsylvania counties. Plans for a third prison, in Grayson County, were approved the following year.
Once construction began, it became clear that the prison system was not growing as rapidly as expected.
With a current inmate population of about 38,000 — 8,000 fewer than what was predicted in 2004 — and less state funding, the Department of Corrections has had to downsize. (The count includes inmates in prisons and those in local jails who have received a penitentiary sentence.)
Aging prisons in Botetourt, Brunswick, Pulaski and Southampton counties were closed.
Of the three new prisons built to handle a surge that never came, only one, in Tazewell County, is fulfilling its intended mission.
Greenrock Correctional Center in Pittsylvania County, which opened in 2007 about the same time as the Tazewell prison, is holding about 1,000 inmates from Pennsylvania.
And it’s unclear how long the newest prison in Grayson County will remain vacant.
“Why they projected the need for all these prisons, I don’t know,” said Jean Auldridge, president of Virginia CURE, an inmate advocacy group. “It just makes no sense that the General Assembly decided to do that. I think they wanted to be so tough on crime, they just went overboard.”
Yet crime in Virginia is declining, a trend that began well before the three new prisons were ready to accept inmates.
“Prior to 2002, historical trends showed growth,” Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said in an e-mailed response to questions about why the three prisons were built.
Arrest rates have since dropped, especially for violent crimes and drug offenses that in the past have driven inmate predictions upward.
“Forecasters across the country are monitoring trends to explain these unprecedented declines; however, they are not explained at this point,” Traylor said.
A report from the secretary of public safety offered several possible explanations. For one, arrests for cocaine offenses in Virginia have dropped 40 percent since 2007. Why? Tougher enforcement and border security, along with the drug war in Mexico, have made it harder for traffickers to import cocaine, the report stated.
Another reason for fewer arrests could be that there are fewer police officers on the streets as local and state law enforcement agencies are forced to cut spending, according to the report.
Even with arrests down, correctional officials say they can always use more prison beds.
“This is not a bed space problem. This is a money problem,” Traylor said, when asked to respond to criticism that the prison system was overbuilt. “Budget reductions have forced us to close facilities.”
Because of the closings, prison officials have been leaving more state inmates in local jails. With crime down, that hasn’t created overcrowding for most jails, said John Jones, executive director of the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association.
As for the near future, it looks as if the number of prisons will continue to decline. The Department of Corrections is facing a $10.9 million cut in the upcoming budget year, Traylor said, which “may entail closing one or more facilities.”
Smarter sentencing
Last year, about 13,000 men and women finished their time and walked out of a Virginia prison, a 33 percent turnover rate that is normal for the system.
Within three years, 28 percent of them will return by committing a new crime or violating probation, according to the Department of Corrections.
It’s a revolving door that the state is trying to slow down.
At the direction of Gov. Bob McDonnell, corrections officials are putting more emphasis on programs to keep inmates from re-offending. Although Virginia’s recidivism rate is the sixth-lowest among 40 states for which data was most recently available, the current reduction in prison beds and funding is adding urgency to the effort.
The program — run by a newly created coordinator and overseen by a council appointed by the governor — will target inmates as soon as they enter prison and develop a detailed plan to assist their rehabilitation.
Such an idea might never have been broached 10 or 15 years ago — much less by a Republican governor — when the mood among politicians was to abolish parole, enact mandatory minimum sentences and vote for other punitive measures.
But with crime down and state dollars scarce, there seems to be a shift in philosophy when it comes to crime and punishment, said Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, who serves on the Virginia Crime Commission.
“I think we’ve come full circle, because it’s obvious we’ve overbuilt ourselves with prisons,” Ware said. “I think it’s finally seeped in. I don’t think people like to admit it politically, but the fact of the matter is that it’s a lot cheaper to do prevention than it is to lock people up in the penitentiary.”
Re-entry is not the only new idea being floated these days. A state task force is looking for ways to cut down on the number of nonviolent felons sent to prison. For years, drug dealers and thieves have far outnumbered killers and rapists in prison.
“We may be locking people up smarter,” said Jones of the sheriff’s association. “We don’t need to lock up all these nonviolent offenders. If we’re mad at them, we don’t need to lock them up. If we’re scared of them, we do need to lock them up.”
Guarding empty cells
On a mid-December day in Grayson County, a malicious wind whipped across the prison yard as the temperature hovered in the teens.
The door to one of the prison’s four housing units swung open, and Garman and his visitors stepped inside an empty, but warm, building.
Virginia taxpayers are paying $715,000 this year to keep the prison in mint condition. The heat runs to keep pipes from freezing, and air conditioning will prevent mold and mildew in the summer. Six employees are responsible for maintaining the prison, which sits off U.S. 58 just east of Independence.
There’s a one-year warranty on work done by the contractors, so the prison’s staff has been busy testing security systems, flushing toilets, running equipment and making sure everything works properly.
Normally, those kinds of things would be done as the prison gradually filled up. It’s difficult to troubleshoot for problems, Garman said, “until you have 1,024 guys all flushing the toilets in the morning.”
Already, four months of inattention is taking its toll. The locks on gates leading to the prison yard, which normally would be used countless times in the course of a day, were freezing shut. Now, they get opened and shut regularly by the staff, even though there’s no one to pass through them.
The state’s two-year budget includes another $715,000 to maintain the prison in the upcoming fiscal year.
“In some ways, folks might say we’re wasting money.” sGarman said. “But I don’t think so. We’re guarding the commonwealth’s investment by making sure we got what we paid for.”
Meanwhile, a state lawmaker who represents the region said he’s working with the governor and secretary of public safety to find ways to use the prison by next summer, even if it’s just a portion of the cells.
People in the area are eager to apply for the 350 jobs that the prison will create, said Del. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson County.
“We’re in a financial crisis right now, and everybody needs to understand that we have limited dollars,” Carrico said. Still, he said, “I feel confident that we’re not going to let a $100 million prison sit empty.”