Gov. Patrick Morrisey has appointed a long-time corrections employee, Lance Yardley, as the acting commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey has appointed a long-time corrections employee as the acting commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump selected incumbent commissioner William Marshall III to lead the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. On Monday, Morrisey announced Marshall would be succeeded by a new acting commissioner, Lance Yardley.
Yardley had served as the division’s deputy commissioner since 2024, according to the governor’s office. Earlier in his career, Yardley held positions at South Central Regional Jail, Huttonsville Correctional Center and Pruntytown Correctional Center.
Last year, Marshall told lawmakers that the state had made significant strides in addressing staffing and training issues, with the percentage of vacant correctional positions shrinking to single digits.
As acting commissioner, Yardley will helm the state’s prison system until a long-term successor for the role is identified.
West Virginians convicted of selling illicit drugs may soon face stiffer criminal penalties. But some lawmakers and residents worry harsher sentences may not effectively deter drug use, and could even have farther reaching implications than intended.
West Virginians convicted of selling illicit drugs may soon face stiffer criminal penalties. But some lawmakers and residents worry harsher sentences may not effectively deter drug use, and could have farther reaching implications than intended.
Senate Bill 196 is dubbed “Lauren’s Law.” It is named after Morgantown resident Lauren Cole, who died at age 26 after ingesting drugs laced with fentanyl. The bill would hike prison sentences for the manufacturing, delivery or possession with intent to deliver certain addictive substances, namely fentanyl, methamphetamine, PCP, LSD, cocaine and heroin.
At their meeting Monday, members of the House Judiciary Committee agreed that more needs to be done to prevent drug overdose tragedies. But their ideas for potential solutions differed.
Proponents of the bill say it offers a much-needed intervention into the state’s addiction crisis. Opponents worry that it could dampen judicial discretion and have farther reaching impacts than initially intended.
The bill’s lead sponsor Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier, testified before the House committee Monday. He argued the prospective criminal penalties were comparable to those in neighboring states, and said addressing addiction means targeting those who enable access to illicit substances.
“West Virginia has been victimized by the drug dealers from outside the state bringing this into our state,” Deeds said. “Ultimately, I consider everyone that is drug dependent as being a victim.”
Deeds said giving courts the authority to enforce harsher penalties could be a piece of the puzzle in a wider effort to address substance use. He also said addiction comes at the cost of the state’s medical system and workforce.
But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioned the efficacy of criminal penalties as a deterrent against the sale and use of illegal substances.
So did Kenneth Matthews, an associate for the American Friends Service Committee, who testified before the committee Monday. He said it’s more effective to examine substance use disorder from a health lens.
“We saw in West Virginia a 37.4% decrease in overdose deaths from the same time last year. How did that happen? Well, we had a bunch of substance use treatment facilities get into operation,” he said. “There was less stigma around substance use.”
Some lawmakers expressed concern that the stiffer penalties could take away judges’ ability to assess drug-related offenses on a case by case basis and help people experiencing addiction access support.
Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, questioned whether bigger penalties would mean bigger costs for correctional facilities. He also worried the bill could heighten penalties for less restricted drugs, like marijuana, if they had trace amounts of other substances.
He asked whether a weight metric used on possession charges could have unintended consequences for someone with marijuana who is unaware the drug is laced with something else.
“If somebody’s caught with a small bag of marijuana that has just the detectable amounts of some other drug with higher penalty, that entire weight of marijuana is considered to be the weight of that other drug,” Hansen said.
Despite these concerns, committee members chose to move forward with the bill. The House Judiciary Committee advanced Senate Bill 196 to the markup and discussion phase, but multiple lawmakers expressed interest in amending the bill’s language.
Two Berkeley County deputies face criminal charges after they were arrested for an altercation that occurred at a local rec center in March.
Two Berkeley County deputies face criminal charges after they were arrested for an altercation that occurred last month.
The Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department confirmed in a press release Wednesday that two off-duty sheriff’s deputies had been arrested by the Martinsburg Police Department and placed on administrative leave “pending a complete investigation of this incident.”
Deputy Bryant Andrew Snapp faces a felony charge for malicious wounding. Deputy David Allen Knotts faces a misdemeanor charge for disorderly conduct. Kaylyn Snapp, who is married to Deputy Bryant Snapp, was also arrested following the incident.
The arrests follow a physical altercation that broke out at a local recreation center event on March 14, according to local newspaper The Journal.
Witness accounts reported by the Panhandle News Network allege that Knotts threw a beer can toward other attendees; that Deputy Snapp physically assaulted another attendee, breaking their chair in the process; and that Kaylyn Snapp put the same attendee in a chokehold.
One individual was admitted to the emergency room and reported a mild brain injury and concussion from the incident, the network reported.
Both deputies appeared before the Berkeley County Magistrate Court on Tuesday and were released on bond, The Journal reported.
In its press release, the sheriff’s department said it would follow standard state procedures while investigating the incident, but that it would not release any “further information … at this time.”
Jefferson County officials were left scrambling this month after a local rehabilitation program for low-level criminal offenders with substance use issues announced it would cease operations. But a new decision from a neighboring county may provide participants a lifeline.
The Berkeley County Commission voted Thursday to accept the transfer of Jefferson Day Report Center enrollees to the publicly operated Berkeley County Day Report Center in Martinsburg.
Unlike its peer in Martinsburg, the Kearneysville-based Jefferson County center is a nonprofit organization. While it partners with the county government and magistrate court to provide services, the center operates independently. This month, its board of directors resolved to close in June.
County officials say the sudden decision comes as a shock, and brings risks to participants who depend on the program as a way past addiction and the criminal justice system.
“It wasn’t a little bit unexpected,” Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey told West Virginia Public Broadcasting Wednesday. “It was 1000% unexpected.”
West Virginia magistrate judges can divert offenders with substance use issues away from prisons via day report centers. Pictured is the Jefferson County Courthouse in May 2024.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
An important service interrupted
Day report centers operate across the United States. Under the West Virginia Community Corrections Act, county magistrate courts can assign people convicted of certain offenses to day report centers. This diverts them away from the prison system, which can be costly to run and comes with a high rate of recidivism — or repeated convictions down the road.
The centers in Berkeley and Jefferson counties are nonresidential, offering participants rehabilitation services and transitional support as a form of supervised release that does not uproot their daily lives.
The Jefferson Day Report Center currently supports roughly 190 active participants, and completed services for nearly 400 people between July 2022 and June 2023, the Spirit of Jefferson previously reported.
Given how many “vulnerable” people depend on the program, Harvey found its plans to close troubling.
The decision “could have impacted everyone that’s coming through the court system,” he said.
Harvey said the board of directors for the Jefferson Day Report Center told him over email that the planned closure boils down to funding issues, because difficulties securing grant funds has made it harder to extend services to the public.
Harvey said he found that reasoning “hypocritical” because the center receives significant state and county funding.
According to its most recent publicly accessible tax reports, the center received nearly $1.1 million in “government grants” in 2023, which comprised roughly 64% of the center’s total revenue that year. That figure also outpaced the center’s reported grant funding in 2022, 2021 and 2020 by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer of the Jefferson Day Report Center’s current board of directors filed to create a separate Kearneysville nonprofit named “Generations Haven” with the West Virginia secretary of state’s office in April 2024.
The Jefferson Day Report Center did not respond to multiple phone call and email requests for comment on this story regarding the reasoning behind its closure.
Lending a hand
Harvey discussed the facility’s imminent closure with members of the Jefferson County Commission last week. At their March 20 meeting, the commission voted to adopt a plan to transfer active and future participants to the day report center in Berkeley County.
On Thursday, the Berkeley County Commission adopted a memorandum of understanding that okays the plan for one year.
“It’s not going to affect the Berkeley County taxpayers,” said Commissioner John Hardy, who represents the Tuscarora District immediately bordering Jefferson County. “I believe it’s very important for us to be able to work with our surrounding counties … [and] to protect these people that have been going through this program.”
While helping more people access services will take “extra work” from staff, Jefferson County will fund participation and transportation costs for its enrollees without cost to the Berkeley County government, said Tim Czaja, director of community corrections for Berkeley County.
Czaja, who oversees local correctional services like the day report program, feels confident staff members will be able to sustain the additional demand. Previously, residents of Berkeley and Jefferson counties shared a joint day report center that was initially located in Martinsburg, then moved to Jefferson County.
“We’re prepared to take it on, and there’s state grant funds that are available from Justice and Community Services,” Czaja told WVPB after the meeting Thursday. “We can see about having those funds allocated to us next year to help directly meet the need for Jefferson County residents.”
The Berkeley County Day Report Center is located in Martinsburg, roughly an 11-mile drive from the Jefferson Day Report Center in Kearneysville.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Keeping participants afloat
While the Jefferson County facility may be closing, Czaja said county demand for rehabilitation and transitional services remains.
“The day report center’s closing doesn’t mean the problem is gone. Those folks are going to need some assistance,” Czaja said. “They asked us if we could help, and we’re happy to do that. We’ve put a plan in place.”
Meanwhile, Harvey said members of the county commission are considering opening and financing a new, public day report center within county lines.
Harvey said he is grateful that participants will not be left without options, but still worries the facility transfer could come with risks. The move will require people in sensitive situations to familiarize themselves with the new facility, and travel a greater distance to access support.
“It creates logistical challenges,” Harvey said. “Just generally, you want to limit friction as much as possible when you’re serving a population that’s vulnerable and marginalized. Transportation is oftentimes the number-one obstacle to recovery.”
The Berkeley County Day Report Center is a roughly 11-mile drive from the Jefferson County facility, and located even further away from Jefferson County’s easternmost towns, which the day report center also services.
“We do have a plan. We have vehicles ready to go to be able to transport people. But, in an ideal situation, you want to treat people where they’re at, either emotionally, mentally or physically,” Harvey continued. “And Jefferson County would be the place.”
Jefferson County’s day report center is slated to close this summer — a decision local officials say came as a shock.
Jefferson County’s day report center is slated to close this summer — a decision local officials say came as a shock.
West Virginians struggling with substance use issues who are convicted of certain crimes, mostly nonviolent offenses, can be assigned to day report centers by magistrate court judges instead of incarceration.
The nonresidential facilities require residents to participate in regular rehabilitation and transitional programming as a form of supervised release.
The Kearneysville-based Jefferson Day Report Center’s administrative board made the decision to close earlier this month, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey told members of the Jefferson County Commission during their regular meeting March 20.
Harvey said the decision was sudden, and has left county officials struggling to ensure services remain accessible to active participants after the June 30 closure.
“It has been a scramble to make sure that the services are not interrupted for those who are currently in the court system,” Harvey said.
The Jefferson Day Report Center is a corporation that receives public funds but is functionally independent from the county government. Harvey said the center plays an important role in helping residents struggling with addiction access recovery resources.
In light of the closure, the commission voted to approve a plan that would transport Jefferson County participants to the Berkeley County Day Report Center in Martinsburg to continue services. The plan is scheduled for a final review from the Berkeley County Commission during its regular meeting Thursday, March 27.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a deal Thursday that would have shielded OxyContin makers from lawsuits over their role in the opioid epidemic. Critics say Purdue Pharma knew OxyContin was addictive when they aggressively pushed its sale.
The United States Supreme Court rejected a deal Thursday that would have granted OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma immunity from civil charges for its role in the opioid epidemic. Now, West Virginia’s attorney general says he will continue to fight for money from drug manufacturers.
Critics say the company knew of OxyContin’s addictive quality while aggressively pushing its sale, even as hundreds of thousands of Americans died from opioid overdose since the 1990s.
West Virginia has been one the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. At least 14,000 residents have died from opioid-related overdose since 2001, and between 2022 and 2023 the state’s overdose rate rose even as the national rate fell.
The nixed deal with the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, would have provided $6 billion to addiction prevention and recovery services nationally, with tens of millions of dollars slated for West Virginia.
But West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said that, regardless, the court’s decision marked an important step toward holding opioid manufacturers legally responsible for the fallout of opioid addiction.
“We have fought hard — and we’re still fighting — to bring a sense of healing to the state,” Morrisey said in a press release Thursday. “With this decision, we will double down on our efforts to hold those who are accountable for the damage that’s been done to our state. We’ll be examining new ways to bring this case to closure.”
Morrisey added that, while money from legal settlements with opioid manufacturers cannot “bring back the lives lost from the opioid epidemic,” he hopes it can “provide much needed help to those affected.”
