Secretary of Public Safety Franklin White in which he

Secretary of Public Safety Franklin White in which he aet forth a series of propoeala for the strengthening of security at Mecklenburg and elsewhere throughout the sprawling system. The propoeals called for the hiring of 194 new corrections officers, the installing of more “raaor wire" fencing, more external lighting and the acquisition of various kinds of technical equipment

The total tab would come to about $6.6 million, a sizeable sum, but well within the state’s newly discovered $160 million surplus. The expenditure could have been authorized by the governor with a stroke of a pen. Instead, Robb is following the more traditional course of having the recommendations staffed through his budget advisers.

In the meanwhile Landon, who makes the recommendations, resigned Us post as director on Dec. 1 in obvious frustration.

Thus, Robb has a two-fold problem.

The first, and clearly the most important, is to take the immediate and decisive steps necessary to bring the Corrections Department up to speed with respect to manning, equipment and facility management. His new Director of Corrections, Allyn Sielaff, will be in no better position to prevent escapes and disorders than were his predecessors-unless this is done. And unless it is done, as surely as night follows day, the incidents will continue.

His second problem is one of political damage control.

If the present pattern of events in the department persists, each new episode will add more ammunition to the already formidable arsenal in the hands of Republican candidates in next year’s races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, and for the House of Delegates.

As a political issue, the GOP could hardly wish for a better one. Should the incidents continue, or even if they don’t, the Republicans can attack Robb and the Democrats for having allowed those already on the record to have occurred. Yet if the Democrats try to raise the fiinda needed to get at the real root of the problem as opposed to treating the symptoms, the charge will be made that they are taxraising spendthrifts.

The view here is that both the interests of the people of the Commonwealth and Robb’s political interests would be best served by a bold stroke on his part. Certainly any further major escapes or uprisings could be a disastrous blow to the public’s perception of the quality of his management of the state’s penal system.

Needless to say, they would also complicate the lives of Democratic candidates in next year’s elections.

This is one time when the governor should be a bit less Virginian in his approach to solving a problem.

He should invest the money needed to get the job done, and do it now.

Otherwise he and his party may continue to be bogged down in what could become, in feet, the Virginia Democrats’ Vietnam.