North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 06/15/1998

It's Monday June 15th. Tonight the economics of Criminal Justice in North Carolina now. Good evening I'm reading the dry welcome as we kick off a new week here in North Carolina now. If you have a child or a grandchild who is college bound and we have some vital information for you on this evening's program. Our guest and I will be here to tell us about a tax deferred a college savings program. And while you're saving for college you might want to save a few dollars for a nice vacation getaway. How about a trip to Bald Head Island. Bob Garner will take us there. But up first tonight the impact of budget considerations on some smaller older prisons in our state. During this current legislative session the General Assembly will consider a plan to make North Carolina's prison system more efficient. The plan calls for the closing of nine small prison units in the Piedmont and the western part of the state.

Closing the prisons will save the state money by eliminating 300 prison jobs. But the idea has some opposition as producer David Haines and photographer Michael McGinnis found when they visited a prison unit in the Mecklenburg County town of Huntersville concertina wire strung along the 12 foot high double fence. The unmistakable signature of a prison despite the ominous appearance this is actually a minimum security prison the inmates are on are great prisoners. Michael Berg has changed over the years as a way of a volved into a lockup facility where a minimum custody lockup facility we have a felon and the rights that have been promoted from me to you because I did an observation before I go to a less than secure testing center that night. The mental health of much. But if the legislature agrees with the recommendation of an auditor's report Huntersville 68 years of operation will come to an end in February of next year.

This prison along with eight others in Alamance Alexander Martin Guilford Union Scotland Stanley and Stokes are scheduled to close in order to save five million dollars a year. Governor Hunt says the savings will go towards raising teacher salaries. Hunter is built like many small prisons was built by the state highway department in the 1030 so inmates could supply labor to build North Carolina's roads. Many inmates still work on highway projects but society's attitudes and several court decisions have changed the way these small camps operate. Huntersville currently houses 137 inmates court orders require the state to provide each man with 50 square feet of living space. Using that figure the Department of Corrections says Huntersville is at one hundred seventy eight percent of capacity and prison officials say it is more expensive to house prisoners in small units like this one. The state's average cost to house an inmate for a day is forty seven dollars. At Huntersville the price is fifty four dollars.

Annette Hansen has worked at the Hunter's bill prison unit since 1971. She understands the mathematics of efficiency. Inmates may not have strong bonds to the institutions where they are incarcerated but Hinson says she is one of many who will shed a tear if Huntersville closes. We understand that the site really has a new concept and in Dale and with the larger facilities which are much less probably much more effective than the smaller facilities are. But when you get that then you lose community involvement you know we've got probably 90 active community volunteers that come here to this unit at least probably once a month some of them more often than I am. We've got a great September away from sale and we've got a chaplain that's been there. Starting your site when you thought that when you think about closing you think about Liz a knowledgebase fable Hinson and others who don't want to see the prison

closed have some political allies elected officials in several counties have expressed dismay over the recommendation to close the nine units. The Board of County Commissioners sheriff Pendergraph the county manager we are all in communication with state staff and with members of the state legislature. Senator Odom is well acquainted with what the problem here is. Tom Bush is concerned about capacity at the county's new jail facility just a few miles from the state's Huntersville prison. State inmates use some of the slots at the new prison limbered counties in a criminal justice crisis right now. One of the problems with our criminal justice system is we have absolutely no space for. Criminals and we are not prosecuting them to the full extent of the law. Corrections officials insist the 30000 prison slots in the state do provide adequate capacity and the nine small units proposed to close will be replaced by larger regional prisons that will increase capacity even further. But Tom

Bush isn't giving up the fight among other things he is researching the title to the prison property in Huntersville in hopes of finding some leverage that could force the state to keep the unit open perhaps as a juvenile detention facility. Our sheriff right now is having to drive 17 800 miles per month all over North Carolina in order to get juvenile criminals to the courtroom because we have no place to hold juveniles here in Mecklenburg. We have one little center called Gatling which only has eight beds. If the state prison system would be willing to operate a. State juvenile detention facility with the capability to hold both male and female. And would give us access to that pretrial then we would give strong consideration to what they want to do. The idea of transforming prison units into juvenile detention facilities has been suggested by officials in other counties where prisons might close. Well coming up on North Carolina now a getaway to a baldhead Island. But first let's check in with Michel Louis

for a summary of today's statewide headlines. Good evening Mitch. Thanks Marina. Good evening everyone. Groups representing state and local retirees are worried that their constituents may pay a high price for the recent settlement. The state is made with the retirees. The groups have written lawmakers urging them not to punish retirees for the lawsuit. The letter expresses concerns that lawmakers may offset the costs of the settlement by withholding cost of living raises over the next two years. The settlement which legislators agreed to late last week will cost the state a total of seven hundred ninety nine million dollars. Federal retirees will get nearly two thirds of that refund. An investigation into a $100000 settlement received by former DMV employee Algy Toomer will come to an end this week. A state House committee will issue its findings after more than a year of hearings. The head of the committee Representative Carolyn Russell says the report will recommend criminal investigations of some of those call to testify before the committee. Although she will not specify who will be named Russell says it's hard to

figure out why aides to Governor Hunt agreed to pay Toomer. Some state lawmakers are questioning whether the global trance park in Canton should continue to receive funds from the state legislature. Many say the trans park's failure to lure the Federal Express hub and other big businesses as a reason to cut it out of the state budget trance park officials still believe they will receive support from legislators the state and federal government has already spent 33 million dollars on the trance park so far and Governor Hunt is asking for five point four million dollars in this year's budget to go toward lengthening the runway and bringing the facility into compliance with the state's new wetlands mitigation rules. The State Department of Public Instruction was an astral and Newton today to hold public meetings on ways to use federal funds targeted toward teaching students abstinence until marriage. North Carolina was given more than a million dollars last school year to promote and support sex education classes that teach young people not to have sex before marriage. DP I will hold more meetings in ash barrel. Raleigh and Greenville later this week. And now for a

look at tomorrow's weather highs in the mountains will be in the mid 70s the lower 80s the rest of the state will see highs in the upper 80s to mid 90s. Partly cloudy skies will cover the state with a good chance for showers and thunderstorms statewide. In business news air pollution is becoming a major problem in the North Carolina mountains. Officials say that poor air quality may drive many tourists and retirees away from the mountains. A region that heavily depends on those groups where economic growth over the past 50 years visibility in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway has decreased by 60 percent and by 80 percent in the summer. In recent weeks the mountains have experienced some of the unhealthiest air in the east with high ozone levels at higher elevations. Low unemployment rates in the Triangle area and the Piedmont triad are making it hard to fill jobs. City officials are struggling to fill positions that offer modest salaries. They offering special perks and rewards to try to recruit new employees or keep current employees. Unemployment rates in the greater triad region are at 2.8 percent and the triangle the

rates are at one point six percent. The stock market ended the day with its second worst showing of the year as the Dow Jones dropped by more than 200 points. And now for a look at the rest of the numbers. North Carolinians have a new tax deferred means of saving for

college. The college vision fund provides a safe convenient way for parents and grandparents to set aside money for a child's higher education because the plan takes advantage of the new tax laws. Our names are exempt from state taxes as long as the money is used to pay for college. Federal taxes are deferred until the money is withdrawn to pay for college and then it's taxed at the students right. Now here to tell us more about the plan is Steve Brooks the executive director of the North Carolina State Education Assistance authority Mr. Brooks welcome to the program thank you for you to be here. How this plan works plan works for families as a long term flexible financing plan. It gives a family the chance to deposit money into and account for a number of years prior to the child's entering college the same number of years after college plus the college years. For example if I have a 14 year old son and I do. I have four years prior to his entrance to college. Those four years plus the four years of college in the four years after a 12 year period and that gives me a

12 year term on a college vision account. And how is it decided how much money goes into that account. The program helps families decide about how much college is likely to cost during the four years of enrollment. And thats using past inflation of college costs as an indicator. Taking that we then divide it into a payment amount that will produce that sum of money during the college years. So this is a formula that you gave us about the four years before the four years during the four years after. Is that standard for everyone or that depends on how old your child is. It depends on how the child is a 10 year old for example would have 8 years prior to college the four years of college and eight years after college so what 20 year term which would give much lower payments even though the cost for that 10 year old is likely to be higher than would be the cost for the 14 year old. Because the great benefit of this plan is the long term nature it gives probably the most affordable way of

paying for higher education that I've yet found. The lowest monthly payment for the amount of money that can be taken out. Now I know that this is a college savings plans like this. Many states have them throughout the country but North Carolina's plan is particularly unique. It is unique it's the first of its type in the country it. It involves both a savings component and a loan component. The plan works as a savings plan. Up until about the junior year of the child's enrollment in college at which point if the money in it is exhausted a loan is advanced and the monthly payment remains the same. That's the long term nature of our plan that makes it unique unique in a couple of other ways as well. It's not limited just to tuition. A number of plans are limited to tuition and I should say that any plan is better than no plan at all that one of the things that is important is for families to plan for paying for college. But this one is comprehensive in nature it includes tuition fees room and board transfer. Books and

supplies and other incidental expenses that really are a large part of going to college. In fact in North Carolina tuition fees are probably less than 25 percent of the total cost of education. So for a college vision to focus on the comprehensive cost we think is quite important. Now you've set aside this money now. Does that have to be used to pay for tuition for a school here in North Carolina. Another one of the things about college vision that distinguishes it from other plans is that it's completely portable. Students go in state or out of state to a public or private institution. So long as it's an accredited institution in the United States the college vision fund can be used to pay the cost of education. What if you're a parent or grandparent you've set aside all this money and you've got a child that just doesn't want to go to school. Well of course that can happen. The money can be transferred from this beneficiary or this child to another child in the family or if there is no qualifying successor beneficiary. The money can be withdrawn by

the parent who is the participant or the grandparent. Now that happens it would be subject to income tax because it wasn't used for education purposes and it could also be subject to a penalty of 15 percent of the interest depending on the reason the money was withdrawn. And you said something there about the at the beginning of your answer that it could be transferred to another beneficiary so when you're setting aside this money you have to designate a specific person that's going to benefit from those you do you set aside an account for a specific child. The child has to be under age 16 anywhere from birth to 16 as long as he or she has a social security number and each account is separate for the beneficiary so that if a family has two children they would set up two accounts rather than one larger account. And without giving an exact dollar figure but maybe you can give us an idea of how much money this would save a parent if they started you know putting money into it now as opposed to waiting later. I'll give you the idea for my son who's 14 I just just calculated that in fact I

have signed up for the plan. If I waited and borrowed the money through a Federal PLUS loan at the time he started school it would cost me something like five hundred fifty dollars a month for about a 10 year period to pay it off under college vision I can accomplish the same thing in about the same number of years for a little over $300 a month. So it's a significant difference in terms of monthly payment so that makes me ask the question how can this state afford something like this. The state actually is not is not subsidizing this in any way except for the foregone income tax. The difference is that in the college vision account I'll be earning interest for the first six and a half years rather than paying interest the entire term and the earning of interest makes my monthly payment go way down. All right well Mr. Brooks sounds like a fabulous idea yeah I know that you've started me thinking about this whole process and hopefully some of our viewers will start thinking about it as well but I hope they will I think it's a great program for North Carolina. Thanks for sharing the information thank you. All right. And if you would like more information about the savings program you can call 1 800 six hundred thirty four fifty three.

Bald Head Island south of Wilmington is one of North Carolina's newer coastal vacation destinations. The island was virtually undeveloped and inaccessible for years and court battles over development proposals for bald head dragged on for a 10 year period beginning in the early 70s. In recent years however vacationers in search of quiet serene getaways have begun finding their way to the island in substantial numbers. Bob Garner takes us on a visit. Over the years there have been a lot of controversial

development plans for Bald Head Island but the one that eventually took shape was one with a relatively low impact basically permits for a marina and further development were granted after a former owner handed over more than 10000 acres of beach Martian forest to the Nature Conservancy which in turn deeded it to the state of North Carolina. Just 2000 acres was left to be developed pretty well in harmony with nature in the eyes of one visitor and they seem to build all the homes off the road if you call them roads the car paths. And he really can't see all the development that's out here it seems like here almost in a wildlife reserve which in a sense we are here actually Bald Head Island to the bottom and right side as seen from the air is just one part of much larger Smith Island most of which is preserved in a natural state. And although Cape Fear at the top of the picture is on the privately owned bald head portion and could eventually be developed. Efforts are underway to purchase and save the Cape Fear section as a natural area.

Developers and managers say even if Cape Fear is developed it will be done carefully. The future for Bald Head Island is really one that's going to be in harmony. The surroundings the dam the marshes the water ocean everything about it. And we plan to make sure that we intend to keep it that way. No bridge has ever connected baldhead island to the mainland and the 20 minute passenger ferry ride from Southport at the mouth of the Cape Fear River provides a vital buffer for the island 700 property owners and visitors alike. It's real lowkey real laid back. It's not a whole lot of nightlife and it's just a very peaceful and relaxing. The homes on bald head many of which are for rent are sometimes hidden away in the maritime forest or beside a marsh. Sometimes more visible on the beach or the golf course. The shingled clapboard style houses give something of a Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket feel to the place as do the en and bed and breakfasts nestled beside the marina.

Transportation is horse and buggy paced by golf cart or bicycle along shady paths or winds as they're known on the island. Supplies are available at a small grocery and there is a boutique. But aside from a couple of restaurants near the harbor dining is limited to either home or the Bald Head Island Club. Actually the club is best known for a golf course designed by the lead consultant and renovation of the Masters course in Augusta. It's a George Cobb design links style golf course built in the early 70s. And you know very unique many challenging golf holes out here. We have water on 15 of the holes and probably three of the toughest finishing holes around here with the prevailing wind the winds always in here face on the finishing holes which makes the par three and par fours very difficult. And what kind of comments do first timers offer. They ask is if we have any more golf balls. A lot of people tend to live balls out here just because of the water.

Ok on one of two manicured greens wards is no less difficult but it's easier to keep track of the balls. And there's also a pool and tennis courts. But enjoyment of history and nature are paramount. Stafford Jane Carr is a familiar sight as she leads regular historic tours clad in her trademark pink helmet one of the tour stops North Carolina's oldest lighthouse. Old Baldy built in 1817 and no longer in use. It's 110 feet tall. It's constructed out of brick. This is a concrete stucco type skin that's over the break to protect it from wind and weather. And whenever it would right down it would have to have a patch on her spots through the years near the foot of old Baldy the tiny island post office provides a clue to the typical pace of life here the serenity of silence is just unbelievable. You know from waking up in the morning to the beautiful sun rises to experiencing the sun sets in the evening.

On the other side of the island baldhead is one of the few places in North Carolina where you can watch the sun both rise and set over the ocean and a good location for doing that is Captain Charlie station. It's a collection of restored cottages built for keepers of the now dismantled Cape Fear lighthouse. Visitors are LURD to beachcombing at all hours along with perhaps exploring the creeks through the marshes by canoe or enjoying the serenity of 200 acres of maritime forest resplendent with live oak and poems. The woods marshes and creeks team with wildlife like the alligators that are a common sight to island residents and golfers alike snapping turtles coexist with the gators in the waterways while bald heads protected East beaches among the few remaining safe nesting places for loggerhead sea turtles along the southeast coast of North Carolina. During the summer the Bald Head Island Conservancy conducts nighttime walks for viewing nesting turtles. There are plenty of resorts with more hotels restaurants shops and entertainment but

if your idea of the ideal vacation spot is defined as much by what it isn't as what it is all that island could be just the place for you. And if you would like more information on a Bald Head Island vacation you can call the islands Information Center in South Florida at 1 800 2 3 4 16 66 was our program for tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. On tomorrow's edition of North Carolina now will feature a Forsyth County based emergency medical response team which comes to the aid of disaster victims at a moment's notice. Also tomorrow the changing image of the truck stop. It's not just a greasy spoon anymore. Enjoy your evening and we'll see you back here tomorrow night. Good night everyone. Thank you.