For those who have served time at the Albemarle-Charlottesville jail, the return to freedom can be less than inviting. Given nothing more than a bus ticket and $25, Charlottesville's ex-cons often find themselves left out on the streets without the warm food and shelter they had received back at the jail. More than 80 percent of released inmates will end up back behind bars, Prison spokesperson Larry Hammond said.
"Unfortunately, there are people for whom this is the best place they can be," he said.
A high number of repeat offenders has contributed to chronic overcrowding at the facility, Hammond said. Though reported crime rates in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County continue to decline, the jail has been operating above capacity for years. The general population cells, which initially held two inmates apiece, have been forced in many cases to accommodate twice as many.
A large number of inmates nationwide -- over 20 percent -- have been convicted on drug-related offenses, according to Department of Justice statistics. Hammond estimated over 80 percent of local inmates have some sort of substance abuse problems.
For those in an increasing number of localities, including Charlottesville, alternative treatment options are growing. In certain cases, non-violent drug offenders charged with felonies can plead guilty and receive a suspended sentence pending their completion of an addiction treatment program sponsored by the Charlottesville-Albemarle Drug Court.
The program, which at any given time assists over 50 offenders, currently serves 5 percent of those arrested on drug charges in the region, according to a recent drug abuse analysis compiled by University graduate students.
Though the programs operate at around one-fifth of what it costs to incarcerate a prisoner, they often are not pursued as solutions by lawmakers who tend to view such alternatives as being soft on crime, University Criminal Law Prof. Stephen Smith said.
"It's not a matter of excusing the criminal," he said. "It's about helping them to move on."
A pilot job placement program, which offers work-release to qualified inmates nearing the end of their terms, also has helped to move people out of jails and off of the streets, Hammond said.
Still, many remain in the overcrowded facility where former College student Andrew Alston, charged with the November 2003 murder of local firefighter Walker Sisk, is being held.
The jail itself, designed to hold 329 inmates, currently accommodates 450 during the week and closer to 500 on the weekends, when cots must be placed on the floor of the gym in the old part of the jail to accommodate overnight arrests. A new addition, completed in December, contains cells lined with impact-proof glass that has replaced metal bars in what is considered to be a state-of-the-art institution.
When prisoners get into fights, as can be the case in crowded cells, they frequently are placed in the segregation unit, a pair of cells in the old part of the jail which faces a cinderblock wall just a few feet away. Here, in solitary confinement, is where prison officials said Alston was held after an altercation with a cellmate last November.
Unlike a state prison, which holds inmates convicted of crimes for which they will be serving a multiple-year sentence, the local jail houses those awaiting trial and serving shorter terms or at the tail end of longer convictions.
"People come in here who are innocent," Hammond said.
For those who have been convicted, Hammond said he feels that it is individual choice which leads people to prison. He dismisses social factors such as poverty and drug use as justifications for those who commit crimes.
Smith disagreed.
"Justice tends to come down harder on the types of crimes that poor people commit," he said.
Hammond offered the case of a mother taking her child to meet his father, grandfather and great-grandfather in prison.
"What is that kid supposed to go away thinking
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