ref: reel030105 date: 1976-06-30 content: TO: All Local Jurisdictions within the Central Virginia Planning District FROM: Criminal Justice Advisory Committee of Central Virginia Planning District Commission SUBJ: Proposed Reorganization of Criminal Justice Planning Activities Within the Commonwealth of Virginia
Recent events have occurred whereby the Division of Justice and Crime Prevention is very seriously considering a complete reorganization of the criminal justice planning activities throughout the State. The seriousness of the proposed reorganization was brought to the attention of A. Terrell Griffin, Law Enforcement Planner and William W. Hibbert, III, Executive Director, in the June 17, 1976 memorandum from Edward G. Councill, III, Chairman of the Planning District Criminal Justice Advisory Committee. The Planning District Criminal Justice Advisory Committee, of which both Mr. Griffin and Mr. Hibbert are members, met on June 30, 1976, with Mr. Bruce Brennan, Director of Planning for DCJP, and Mr. Ron Jones, State Planner for DCJP, to discuss the proposals being considered by DCJP. This report reflects their evaluation of the June 30, 1976 meeting and any other action that has taken place.
Discussion on Reasons for Reorganization
Mr. Brennan distributed and discussed eight (8) reasons for the need for the reorganization of the criminal justice planning activities in the State. The following is a discussion of these reasons, both pro and con:
1) We don't need 22 planning regions. That is too many, even if we had all the money in the world.
Initial reaction to this statement is that there must be too many Planning District Commissions in the State. Apparently, the General Assembly and the Governor of the State do not feel this is a true statement since the twenty-two (22) Planning District Commissions are operating presently under the Virginia Area Development Act of 1969. However, there may be some validity to this statement because criminal justice planning activities in a rural PDC are not sufficient to warrant a single planner working in that Planning District. An example is where Planning Districts 17 and 18 have joined forces with one planner to work with both Planning District Commissions in the criminal justice planning activities. Another example is the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission, which is so sparsely populated it could not really warrant a full-time planner, but could be operated with an agreement between the Accomack-Northampton Planning District chunkid: 20314 recordid: 1334 page_number: 1