Tag: Government

State working to increase security at some juvenile facilities

A judge called the inner workings of the Gene Spadaro Juvenile Center “concerning” after receiving a report from a court monitor for the Adjudicated Juvenile Rehabilitation Review Commission.

The Commission was established in June of 2011 to examine the operations and programs of the Division of Juvenile Services facilities across the state. Cindy Largent-Hill is a member of the commission and visited the Spadaro Juvenile Center in Fayette County Monday.

Judge Omar Aboulhosn, Marty Wright, who serves as counsel for DJS, and Lydia Milnes and Dan Hedges of the public interest law firm Mountain State Justice received copies of the report and discussed its findings during a hearing in Kanawha County Circuit Court Tuesday.

“When I read this report, when I talked with my monitor about it, I was kind of surprised to hear the staff being so vocal, saying please help us. We’re afraid someone’s going to get hurt,” Aboulhosn said.

“To hear that they’re afraid the residents are going to take over the facility? That’s pretty stunning,” he said.

When the state decided to close the Salem Industrial Youth Home and, subsequently, Aboulhosn ordered the closure of the Harriet B. Jones Treatment Center this summer on the same campus, juvenile residents were transferred to facilities around the state.

Those with behavioral or mental health issues, called wellness residents, were transferred to the James H. “Tiger” Morton Juvenile Center in Kanawha County and convicted sex offenders were relocated to the Sam Perdue Juvenile Center in Mercer County.

In order to make room for the residents at those facilities, others were shifted between centers and now, Stephanie Bond, acting director of DJS, said staff members at Spadaro have to deal with new types of offenders.

“The staff is used to having lower end status offenders. Our goal was to put lower end detention kids there, but due to the crowding at our more secure detention centers we haven’t been able to move them as we wanted to do,” Bond told the judge.

Not all juvenile facilities in the state have the same security features. Higher end detention centers, like the Lorrie Yeager, Jr., Center in Parkersburg, W.Va., are called hardware secure facilities, meaning they have additional security measures at entrances and fences with barbed wire, while Spadaro is a staff secure center meant for less violent offenders and therefore doesn’t have the same security features.

“The building is not equipped appropriately and staff members know it will take time,” Hill told Aboulhosn, “but they are in dire need now.”

Bond said the state is working to upgrade the Spadaro Center to a hardware secure level, but it is taking time.

Aside from the staff learning to handle a new type of resident and upgrading security, Bond said three residents at Spadaro were acting as ring leaders, egging on their peers. Those residents are being transferred to more secure facilities, including Yeager and the Chick Buckbee Center in Hampshire County.

Wright, however, adds this is problem staff members are seeing at facilities across the state. Over the past year the court has ordered procedural changes within the DJS system and Wright says residents are starting to feel empowered.

“We noticed a trend starting to happen where there’s a belief that you can’t touch me, you can’t do anything to me,” Wright said. “I’ll go complain and get you all in trouble type atmosphere from the residents and now we’re starting to see the matriculation of that mentality going to the extreme.”

Wright told the court it is time to bring some concreteness to the matter.

“We need to bring some calm to the situation and let things start taking its course and get some finality in terms of what these are the rules,” Wright said. “Let’s start implementing them so residents see them.”

Aboulhosn agreed. He has given DJS and Mountain State two weeks to finalize an agreement on the handling of due process rights, education and recreation.

From there, he said he’ll ask counsel to submit its final fact findings and decide how to appropriately dismiss the case.
 

Environmentalists offer details of coal ash ruling

A federal judge issued a memorandum Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to finalize federal coal ash…

A federal judge issued a memorandum Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to finalize federal coal ash regulations.

United States District Judge Reggie B. Walton issued a ruling giving the Environmental Protection Agency 60 days to name how long it will take to review and revise coal ash regulations. 

Coal ash, also referred to as fly ash, is a byproduct of burning coal.  Anything that doesn’t burn up, usually inorganic matter in the coal like shale, is left behind in boilers and is usually disposed of in landfills and settlement ponds.

Power plants in the U.S. produce about 140 million tons of the ash each year and according to the EPA, about 1,000 active coal ash storage sites exist across the nation. West Virginia is home to more than twenty sites.

Judge Walton’s ruling is the outcome of the lawsuit filed in early 2012 by nearly a dozen environmental groups challenging the EPA’s inaction to revise coal ash regulations.

In a conference call senior administrative counsel at Earthjustice, Lisa Evans, spoke about the court’s decision. She referred to the coal ash disaster that occurred in late 2008 when over a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge burst through the dam of a waste pond, located 60 feet above the Emory River at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee. The waste covered 300 acres below the plant, destroying homes, poisoning watersheds. The event provided impetus for many groups to demand new regulations for the disposal of the power plant waste.

“EPA is now required to come forward with a proposed schedule for completion of the ongoing coal ash rule making within 60 days,” Evans said. “Consequently on or shortly after the 5th anniversary of the Kingston Coal Ash disaster, EPA must finally announce its schedule for new coal ash rules. Once approved by this court the schedule will be enforceable against the agency should it delay again. Thus today’s order creates a clear path to obtaining a binding deadline for the much delayed and critically needed coal ash rule.”

But the ruling flies in the face of the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, passed in the House this past summer.  West Virginia’s Republican Congressman David McKinley introduced the bill in an attempt to revise coal ash regulations, but leaves individual states in charge of mandating rules. The act which hasn’t yet come up for a vote in the Senate limits the EPA’s authority to regulate the waste and, most importantly, disallows the EPA from labeling the waste a hazard.

“The bill that passed through the house would take away EPA’s authority to issue this rule that is the subject of the opinion,” Evans said. “What the house bill was attempting to do was prevent the EPA from issuing this rule. So in 60 days we will see the proposed schedule for EPA’s issuance of the rule. And we hope that EPA will be able to proceed to issue that rule without interference by Congress.”

During a press conference environmentalists speculated the EPA will project a date within 2014 to issue their final ruling on any new regulations.

Due process, education, recreation focuses of DJS hearing

Judge Omar Aboulhosn heard what may be the last evidence in the case filed by Mountain State Justice against the Division of Juvenile Services.

Mountain State asked three juvenile residents to testify in an evidentiary hearing Tuesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court.

B.M., identified only by his initials for the court, is a juvenile resident of the Sam Perdue Juvenile Center in Princeton. He is one of the 25 residents relocated after Aboulhosn order the closure of the Harriet B. Jones Treatment Center in Salem over the summer.

B.M. testified the Perdue facility staff follows their meal schedules about 60 percent of the time, serving things like pepperoni rolls, chips and prepackaged cakes for dinner when their cook is off or on sick leave.

S.Y. is an 18-year-old resident of the Donald R. Kuhn Juvenile Center in Boone County and has been in the custody of DJS for over a year. S.Y. testified to support a grievance he filed when the residents of his wing were locked in their rooms for almost two hours. He said residents were told it was a punishment for an individual’s behavior in the cafeteria.

L.B. is a 19-year-old resident of the Northern Regional Detention Center in Wheeling where she said their indoor rec room has only 3 or 4 working exercise machines and she currently has no access to additional vocational training because she has already received her high school diploma. The center now only offers high school or GED classes.

These residents were all called on to testify about the quality of life for juveniles in the custody of DJS. Their issues became concerns not just of the public interest group, but also of the state, as the two are working on the details of an agreement due to Aboulhosn in two weeks.

The Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety released a draft that starts with new policies. These policies are to ensure residence have due process rights when they file grievances and have disciplinary hearings.

“Previously, we were using the notice of charges form. We felt strongly that that met what was in the court order because it gave a brief summary or description of the charges,” said Stephanie Bond, acting director of DJS. “Mr. Hedges and Miss. Milnes disagreed with that.”

Dan Hedges and Lydia Milnes serve as counsel for Mountain State.

Bond said DJS will now give residents a full copy of their incident reports at least 24 hours prior to their hearing. Hearing officers will be required to give residents a written decision afterward.

Also as part of the agreement, DJS is seeking five new employees in their central office in Charleston who will travel the state to hold these disciplinary hearings.

“What we have been doing is trying to find a person who is a non-direct care staff to conduct the hearings to keep it as fair as possible,” Bond said, “and in our smaller facilities that’s almost impossible because everybody has contact with the kids, therefore, we have a maintenance worker, but, nonetheless, we are going to make these separate positions.”

The team will not be tied to any one facility with the goal of providing an unbiased handling of complaints.

As for the concerns brought forward by residents in the hearing, nutritionally Bond said facility meals are certified by the Office of Child Nutrition in the state Department of Education and meet national guidelines.

She said lockdowns occur during necessary times to ensure the safety and security of residents, but happen far less often than a year ago.

But the educational opportunities for female residents are a more difficult task to approach. Bond said she is working closely with the Department of Education who provides the academic and vocational training at all state facilities.

The department has completed the process of converting two rooms into classrooms at Northern. They are also taking applications for and hiring teachers to provide business administration classes for residents with diplomas or GEDs. Similar classes are in the works for other facilities in the state as well.

Aboulhosn has also asked counsel to begin working on their final reports reviewing the changes DJS has made over the past year and where they need to go in the future. He said this includes continuing to work with the court monitor or hiring an internal monitor to observe the ten state juvenile centers.    
 

Rockefeller, Manchin eyeing CONSOL mine sale, Murray safety

West Virginia’s two U.S. senators say they’ll be watching closely to see how Ohio-based Murray Energy treats safety and the workforce of the five CONSOL Energy mines it’s buying.
 
     Senators Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller have requested a meeting with Murray Energy to discuss the transition.
 
     The companies announced the deal Monday for the sale of the Blacksville No. 2, Loveridge, McElroy, Robinson Run and Shoemaker mines.
 
     Pennsylvania-based CONSOL said it wants to shift resources to natural gas development.
 
     Manchin says CONSOL is an industry leader in mine safety, and he hopes Murray Energy will also put miners first.
 
     Rockefeller says Murray Energy must make protecting workers and retirees a priority.
 
     Murray Energy says it operates safe mines but cannot yet comment on its plans for the workforce.

Proposed agreement could mean changes for juvenile offenders

A hearing in Kanawha County Circuit Court will determine whether or not juvenile residents of state facilities will see a difference in the way grievances are handled and an increase in educational opportunities.

Mercer County Judge Omar Aboulhosn will be presented a proposed agreement between the Division of Juvenile Services and Mountain State Justice, a Charleston based public interest law firm whose lawsuit against the division resulted in the closure of the Salem Industrial Home for Youth and later the Harriet B. Jones Treatment Center.

Lawerence Messina, spokesman for the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said the tentative agreement includes creating a team located in the Charleston central office. That team will be responsible for traveling the state to hear grievances filed by residents.

The team will not be tied to any one facility with the goal, Messina said, of providing an unbiased handling of complaints.

Messina said the agreement will also help ensure the due process rights of residents by offering changes to disciplinary hearings according to standards laid out by the American Correctional Association.

“These are professional industry standards,” he said. “We looked to them for guidance and believe both sides are on the same page.”

DJS will also propose changes to programming offered in its facilities, including additional vocational training for residents who have received either their high school diploma or GED. Messina said the details of those programs are still being discussed.

Aboulhosn will hear the proposed agreement at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Charleston
 

Pipeline safety funding announced

Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, along with Senator Joe Manchin and Congressman Nick Rahall, today announced more than $697,000 in federal funding for pipeline safety efforts in West Virginia.  
 
“West Virginia’s booming natural gas industry relies heavily on pipelines, which means they must be safe, reliable and durable. As Commerce Committee Chairman, I’ve worked hard to make sure there is oversight of our pipeline operations to prevent accidents that could harm both our communities and our economy,” said Rockefeller.

“The importance of establishing the strongest possible safeguards against future pipeline explosions was never more apparent than after the devastating explosion in Sissonville last December. This funding is an important investment in our work to make pipelines as safe and secure as possible.”
 
“In West Virginia, investing in natural gas is important for job creation and economic growth, but the bottom line is that we need to make sure drilling is done safely,” Manchin said. 

“We are fortunate that no one was seriously injured last year when a gas pipeline ruptured in Sissonville. This incident proved that we constantly need to be prepared and safety should always be our top priority. This funding will help ensure the pipelines are being operated safely, maintained properly and inspected regularly so that incidents like the rupture last December don’t happen again.”
 
“It would be pennywise but pound foolish not to invest in pipeline safety,” said Rahall, top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with jurisdiction over PHMSA. 

“Our State just witnessed the consequences of pipeline failure and a strong federal partnership is a good insurance policy against future failures.  Constant maintenance and consistent inspections are key ingredients in keeping our families, businesses and industries, our infrastructure and communities safe.”  
 
The funding comes from the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), and was awarded to two agencies in West Virginia in the following amounts:
 

  • $496,943 – West Virginia Public Service Commission – The Commission received this funding through PHMSA’s fiscal year 2013 Pipeline Safety Base Grant program as a reimbursement to help alleviate the cost of the State’s pipeline safety programs.
  • $200,717 – West Virginia Emergency Response Commission – The Commission received this funding through PHMSA’s Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) Grant Program, which gives States assistance in performing hazardous materials response duties.

As Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Senator Rockefeller is in charge of Congressional oversight of pipeline safety. Rockefeller authored legislation that was signed into law in 2011 to strengthen pipeline safety. He also held a field hearing on pipeline safety in Charleston earlier this year in response to the pipeline explosion in Sissonville, West Virginia on December 11, 2012.  The Commerce Committee has held four hearings on pipeline safety in the past three years.

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