Jails Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Books In Prisons And How The Role Of ‘Dad’ Is Shifting, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, being a parent is a 24-hour role, and a lifetime commitment that has historically fallen to women. As men have started to take on more domestic work, what it means to be a father has started to shift. Chris Schulz looks at these changes in our latest installment of “Now What? A Series on Parenting.”

On this West Virginia Morning, being a parent is a 24-hour role, and a lifetime commitment that has historically fallen to women. As men have started to take on more domestic work, what it means to be a father has started to shift.

Chris Schulz looks at these changes in our latest installment of “Now What? A Series on Parenting.”

Also, in this show, across the country, people who are incarcerated have reduced access to libraries, books and educational resources, according to the Appalachian Prison Book Project. For the past 20 years, the West Virginia-based nonprofit has worked to change that. They say that accessing books is a fundamental human right.

Jack Walker reports on the group’s history, and what it takes to get a book into an Appalachian prison.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Ukrainians In Morgantown Honor Front Line Veteran, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade. As that fighting enters its third year, a small community of Ukrainians, formed around West Virginia University (WVU), recently came together to honor one of the war’s frontline veterans.

On this West Virginia Morning, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade. As that fighting enters its third year, a small community of Ukrainians, formed around West Virginia University (WVU), recently came together to honor one of the war’s front line veterans. Chris Schulz has the story.

Also, in this show, the corrections system in West Virginia is a point of discussion at the state legislature. Overcrowding staffing is at the top of the list. Last week for The Legislature Today, Randy Yohe sat down with forensic psychologist Dr. David Clayman and Senate Jails and Prison Committee co-chair Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, to talk about the diversion of certain persons from the criminal justice system.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Two Former Corrections Officers Plead Guilty In Inmate Death

On Thursday, Steven Nicholas Wimmer and Andrew Fleshman each pleaded guilty to conspiring with other officers to use unreasonable force against an inmate identified as “Q.B.” in court documents.

Steven Nicholas Wimmer and Andrew Fleshman each pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with other officers to use unreasonable force against an inmate identified as “Q.B.” in court documents.

Wimmer and Fleshman are former corrections officers from the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, West Virginia. On March 1, 2022, the officers admitted assaulted Q.B. resulting in his death.

According to their plea agreements, Wimmer and Fleshman each acknowledged that they separately responded to a call for officer assistance after Q.B. tried to push past another correctional officer and leave his assigned pod and that, when each arrived at the pod, Q.B. was on the floor as force was being used against him.

The officers then restrained and handcuffed Q.B.

Wimmer, Fleshman and other members of the conspiracy then escorted Q.B. to an interview room where members of the conspiracy aided and abetted each other, struck and injured Q.B. while he was restrained, handcuffed and posed no threat.

Wimmer and Fleshman each admitted that the members of the conspiracy struck and injured Q.B. in order to punish him for attempting to leave his assigned pod.

In his plea agreement, Fleshman admits that he was one of the members who injured Q.B. while he was restrained and posed no threat. He further admitted that he and others moved Q.B. from the interview room into a cell, where members of the conspiracy continued to strike and injure Q.B. while he was restrained, handcuffed and posed no threat to anyone.

Wimmer also admitted to striking and injuring Q.B. after he was brought to the cell in his plea agreement.

Wimmer and Fleshman each pleaded guilty on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023 before U.S. District Court Judge Frank W. Volk. They each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Sentencing hearings are scheduled for Feb. 22, 2024.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney William S. Thompson for the Southern District of West Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Michael D. Nordwall of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Pittsburgh Field Office is investigating the case.

Deputy Chief Christine M. Siscaretti and Trial Attorney Matthew Tannenbaum of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Deputy Criminal Chief Monica Coleman for the Southern District of West Virginia are prosecuting the case.

Us & Them: Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars In West Virginia

America stopped institutionalizing people with mental illness decades ago. But now, many are caught up in a system not meant for them. On this episode of Us & Them, we’ll hear what it’s like to live with mental illness behind bars in the Mountain State.

Overcrowding and understaffing have pushed West Virginia’s prisons and jails to what many believe is a crisis point.

On this episode of Us & Them, we hear what incarceration is like for someone in a mental health crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people with mental illnesses are caught up in a criminal justice system that was never intended to treat them.

In a recent special session, West Virginia lawmakers earmarked $30 million to address staffing shortages and provide pay raises and retention bonuses to correctional staff. There is also $100 million for deferred facility maintenance. However, a new lawsuit against the state on behalf of West Virginia inmates, demands more than three times that amount is needed.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Just Trust, the West Virginia Humanities Council, the CRC Foundation and the Daywood Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

Bishop Mark Brennan and Jeff Allen (director of West Virginia Council of Churches) listen to Beverly Sharp (founder of the REACH Initiative in West Virginia) speak at a West Virginia Council of Churches press conference on the subject of the criminal justice system in West Virginia.

*Credit: Kyle Vass*

Lara Lawson is from the town of Milton in Cabell County, W.Va. She has her master’s degree in sociology and is passionate about social justice issues. She has also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manages that condition. She told Us & Them host Trey Kay about an experience she had during a manic period of her illness when she was placed in Western Regional Jail and deprived of mental health medication. While Lawson says she was not suicidal — she recalls being put in the suicide watch cell for observation.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Us & Them host Trey Kay met with investigative reporter Mary Beth Pfeiffer at her home in the Hudson Valley of New York to talk about her book Crazy In America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill. Pfeiffer’s book shows how people suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and other serious psychological illnesses are regularly incarcerated because medical care is not available. Once behind bars, she reports that people with mental illness are frequently punished for behavior that is psychotic, not criminal. Pfeiffer’s reporting examines a society that incarcerates its weakest and most vulnerable citizens — causing some to emerge sicker and more damaged.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Ashley Omps testified at the West Virginia State Capitol before the Senate Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. She told this group of powerful strangers about the worst experience in her life — a time when she was incarcerated in Eastern Regional Jail after an intense, traumatic event and said she was denied mental health treatment. Omps said it was uncomfortable to share her personal story, but it made a difference. West Virginia law has changed, because people like Ashley took their stories to the capitol.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

W.Va. Corrections Crisis Finds Legislative Fixes, Justice Faces Corrections Lawsuit

Lawmakers say bills passed in the special session to help solve the state’s corrections employment crisis lay a foundation but are not a cure-all.

The measures come as a lawsuit demands the state spend more than 10 times the funds allocated to upgrade conditions in the state’s jails and prisons.

Three key corrections bills provide more than $25 million to increase the starting pay and change pay scales for correctional officers and offer retention payments to non-uniformed corrections workers.

SB 1005 earmarks $21.1 million to increase starting pay and change pay scales for correctional officers. SB 1003 and SB 1004 provide nearly $6 million for one-time bonuses for correctional support staff, divided into two payments that begin in October.

Del. David Kelly, R-Tyler, is the Chair of the House Jails and Prisons Committee. He said the bills create a foundation for relief and a pathway forward.

“I was pleased with the way everyone worked together,” Kelly said. “We started detailed conversations with the Senate in May, and met weekly and bi-weekly, through the months that preceded this call. We know it’s not going to solve the problem, but it’s a piece of the puzzle.”

Kelly noted that the passed legislation also includes $5,000 bonuses for critical vacancy pay, re-named from locality pay. He said the stipend will address worker shortfalls statewide.

“The Eastern Panhandle is dealing with losing officers to other states. But there are other areas that are just as in need as the Panhandle because there are different needs,” Kelly said. “It’s the same outcome, they are short officers.”

A lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday named Gov. Jim Justice and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia as defendants. It demands the state spend $330 million for deferred maintenance and worker vacancies in state corrections. The suit asks Justice to call for a special session and submit bills correcting a number of issues to the legislature to correct these issues. The suit, filed by Beckley attorney Steve New who represents the plaintiffs who are inmates of the state, prohibits Justice and Sorsaia from housing inmates in what the suit calls “unconstitutional conditions.”

“Most troubling, is what’s called deferred maintenance in these correctional facilities,” New said. “Mr. Douglas has testified to the legislature to the point that he recently said he’s tired of sounding like a broken record when he comes before the legislature on the issue of deferred maintenance that needs done in West Virginia’s correctional facilities.”

New referred to current state Division of Corrections Chief of Staff Brad Douglas.

New noted several sworn statements that come from a separate lawsuit regarding conditions at the Southern Regional Jail. He said former state Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy, former state Corrections Commissioner Betsy Jividen, and Douglas, were all frank in depositions on how severe understaffing and overcrowding conditions for more than a decade have grown worse with no government relief.

“People have testified that $50 to $60 million dollars is needed to correct the over 1000 staffing shortages in West Virginia’s corrections,” New said. “The bill only provides for $25 million. The rub is nowhere in deferred maintenance to the tune of $270 million mentioned.”

In his Tuesday media briefing, Justice said he was pleased with the outcome of the special session regarding corrections pay raises.

“To get the pay raises to the folks that we had sent up for two consecutive years,” Justice said “Basically the net of the whole thing, fix the corrections dilemma.”

In response to the lawsuit, Justice said the state is working to catch up with corrections challenges and do better.

“There’s $100 million that went into deferred maintenance in the last session,” Justice said. “Right now, we’ve got $25 million dollars, or whatever the number may be, $30 million, of stuff that’s going to corrections. Folks, right now, it can’t be absolutely dead level perfect.”

Also responding to the lawsuit, West Virginia Commissioner of Corrections and Rehabilitations Billy Marshall called it “an insult to our employees and DCR.” Marshall also said “a lot of the complaint has already come to its conclusions in regards to several of the allegations all of which have been investigated.”

He said the evidence didn’t support the claims listed in the complaint.

“We even have gone as far as having recorded inmates’ conversations that went to family members who asked those family members to lie and give false information to try to create some problems for DCR, forcing us to waste our time and money,” Marshall said.

As to jail and prison maintenance, Marshall said “It’s much like owning a home and if you live in a home long enough, there’s going to be things no matter how well you take care of it, there’s going to be things that pop up that you’re gonna need to fix and replace.”

Judge: W.Va. Can’t Require Incarcerated Atheist To Participate In Religious Programming

A federal judge in West Virginia has ruled that the state corrections agency can’t force an incarcerated atheist and secular humanist to participate in religiously-affiliated programming to be eligible for parole.

In a sweeping 60-page decision issued Tuesday, Charleston-based U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin said Saint Marys Correctional Center inmate Andrew Miller “easily meets his threshold burden of showing an impingement on his rights.”

The state’s “unmitigated actions force Mr. Miller to choose between two distinct but equally irreparable injuries,” the judge wrote. He can either “submit to government coercion and engage in religious exercise at odds with his own beliefs,” or “remain incarcerated until at least April 2025.”

Goodwin issued a preliminary injunction requiring West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials to remove completion of a state-run and federally-funded residential substance abuse program from Miller’s parole eligibility requirements. The agency did not return a request for comment Thursday.

Miller filed suit in a federal district court in April alleging the state is forcing Christianity on incarcerated people and has failed to accommodate repeated requests to honor his lack of belief in God.

The suit claimed Miller encountered “religious coercion” in June 2021 when he entered the Pleasants County correctional facility. Miller is serving a one- to 10-year, nondeterminative sentence for breaking and entering.

Substance use was not a factor in his offense, but Miller was enrolled in the program because he is in recovery from addiction.

He alleged the federally-funded substance abuse treatment program — which is a requirement for his parole consideration — is “infused with Christian practices,” including Christian reading materials and mandated Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, where the Serenity and Lord’s Prayer are recited.

Due to the religious elements of the program, Miller withdrew from it after five days at Saint Marys. Prior to incarceration, he received secular treatment and maintained his sobriety for four years, according to his suit.

Multiple courts have determined that step-based programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are religious-based programs because they are predicated on the existence of a higher power or a God. Steps ask participants to turn their “lives over to the care of God” and encourage prayer to improve “conscious contact with God.”

In the “Big Book,” the foundational document of these programs, “Chapter 4: We Agnostics” tells atheists and agnostics that they are “doomed to alcoholic death” unless they “seek Him.” The chapter characterizes non-believers as “handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.”

In his decision, Goodwin said although West Virginia’s “longstanding” program has never faced judicial scrutiny, other courts have found them to contain “such substantial religious components that governmentally compelled participation” violates the First Amendment.

“I have been provided with no evidence that West Virginia’s program is any less religious or less coercive than the programs invalidated in other jurisdictions,” Goodwin said.

The Parole Board Panel interviewed Miller three times and declined to grant him parole. Miller alleged that his failure to complete the program contributed significantly to the Board’s decision to deny him parole, something the state did not dispute.

“Although Mr. Miller has no entitlement to parole, the record strongly suggests that he would already have been released, but for maintaining his objections to an unconstitutional policy,” Goodwin said.

Geoffrey T. Blackwell, Litigation Counsel for American Atheists who represented Miller along with nonprofit legal services organization Mountain State Justice, on Wednesday called the ruling “a complete vindication of Andrew’s rights under the law.”

“Without Andrew’s willingness to take on this fight, West Virginia would continue to unconstitutionally impose religion on people in its corrections system,” he said. American Atheists is an organization that fights for atheists’ civil liberties and advocates the separation of church and state in the U.S.

Lesley Nash, an attorney with Mountain State Justice, said the organization is pleased the court protected Miller’s rights when the state did not.

“No one should be forced to set aside their moral or religious creed as a precondition of their parole,” Nash said.