At your request, I am setting down some observations of the Corrections Department operations as of the close of 1974. I am optimistic about these operations and would consider that Virginia is in about the middle range in comparison with the fifty state correction systems. Traditionally, the Corrections Department has been neglected because of understandable priorities involving the urgent needs of other state agencies and the taxpayers. This has resulted in "peaks and valleys" and a spot light has been cast upon the Department during the past several years. It has been difficult for citizens and perhaps the media to recognize that Corrections is in ferment throughout the nation. The Virginia Department has been preoccupied with stop gap improvisations and the necessity to cope with "brush fires" for a considerable period of time. One of my first observations was the large number of "studies" underway not only by the Department but by other involved or interested groups. In effect, many people in and out of the Department have been either Charting a Plan or Planning a Chart which has spawned inertia when action was urgently needed.

Fred T. Wilkinson
Corrections Consultant