A report published by the West Virginia Center on Budget Policy said inmates receive highly processed, low nutrient foods that negatively impact their health and cost taxpayers more.
A report published by the West Virginia Center on Budget Policy said inmates receive highly processed, low nutrient foods that negatively impact their health and cost taxpayers more.
The report indicates inmates used to grow fresh produce outside and in greenhouses to cook healthy fresh meals under a state run prison food service program. However, as prison populations grew, the state looked to save money by signing a contract with Aramark food service.
Aramark is a national food service provider. The company received fines due to maggot infested food and food that had been tainted by rats. The food provider has also been cited for serving expired or unrefrigerated food products, the report said.
The authors of the report filed a Freedom of information act to find out how much the state pays Aramark, and to answer questions about conflict of interest. So far, they have not been able to receive any information.
In 2019 West Virginia lawmakers passed The Fresh Food Act that required 5 percent of the purchases made by Aramark to be fresh produce or meat from West Virginia producers. However, the Agriculture Commissioner complained in 2022 that the company has failed to comply with the law, and that the Department of Agriculture has no tools to enforce the law.
The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitations issued a statement that said the organization is committed to the safety, quality of life, and wellbeing of those in the care of the legal system in the state and continually work to provide nutritional meals and quality of health care to those placed in their care.
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.
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.
The numbers of people on parole are swelling in some states, leading to more people going to jail. But the number of people in the system in West Virginia is on the low end compared to the national average.
A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that approximately one out of every 90 people in the United States are in the legal system — either incarcerated or on probation or parole. And the numbers of people on parole are swelling in some states, leading to more people going to jail.
But the number of people in the system in West Virginia is on the low end compared to the national average.
News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Wanda Bertram, the group’s communication strategist, about the report.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Douglas: What’s the big finding from the report in general?
Bertram: We’re taking data from different reports that the government has put out that show the number of people in every state who are in prison, in a local jail, on probation, or on parole. And we put that together into graphics that apply to every state. The reason we did this is because you would think that those numbers would already exist, but all this data is coming from different places. And so there’s not really a clear picture that people can get of how many people are caught up in the criminal justice system. That matters, because even though we think about probation and parole as sort of different from incarceration, those systems drive 42 percent of prison admissions every year. So over 40 percent of people who go to prison every year, they’re coming to prison from being supervised.
Courtesy of the Prison Policy Initiative.
Douglas: So somebody has violated their parole, or they violated their terms of probation, and then they’re being sent back to or being sent to prison out of that?
Bertram: It’s people who have either committed a new crime, and they’re being sent to prison on a new conviction, or they have simply committed a violation with what we call a technical violation, which is where you do something that normally would not be a crime, but because the judge has told you, “don’t do that while you’re on supervision,” it can get you sent back to prison.
The majority of returns to incarceration of people on probation and parole are for these technical violations. These are often things that are very minor activities. Say you are given probation instead of incarceration — this is your first conviction. But one of the terms of your probation is that you have to complete a drug treatment class. Say you don’t show up to a couple meetings. That can get you re-incarcerated. Say, one of the terms of your probation is you have to maintain employment, but you get let go from your job. That, theoretically, can get you locked up again.
I’d say an overwhelming majority of the time, one of the conditions of probation and parole is that you have to pay some regular fees. You actually have to pay administrative fees for the cost of your own supervision. So if you fall behind in paying fees, you can end up behind bars for that. What some people might notice is that these conditions can sometimes get in the way of each other, right? If you have to maintain employment so that you can pay a bunch of fines and fees, but you also have to go to regular classes, and have regular meetings with your supervision officer, which may conflict with your employment — it’s going to be hard to do all those things at once.
You have people that end up behind bars, because they just couldn’t maintain all of these conditions. In fact, there are a lot of people that say, if I’m facing a conviction, and it’s between a short stint in prison, and a stint on probation, I would rather be in prison.
Douglas: Where do things stand? What are some of the numbers?
Bertram: The reason that we did this report, or one of the reasons we did this report, is that there are quite a lot of states, particularly liberal states, that have some low incarceration rates, and they go, “Okay, we fixed the problem of a large prison system,” when in reality, when you look at the number of people who are on supervision in those states, or when you look at the total number of people under correctional control in prison or jail, or on probation or on parole, the numbers go way up. And that’s important, because some of these probation and parole programs are really just serving to drive people into the prison system by putting them under surveillance and then violating them for some minor activity and using that as an excuse to throw them in prison.
Courtesy of the Prison Policy Initiative.
Douglas: Let’s talk about West Virginia for a minute. What did you see when you looked at West Virginia?
Bertram: West Virginia actually has one of the lower total rates of correctional control of all the states that we looked at. If you’re looking at the total number of people incarcerated and supervised, West Virginia is, per capita, punishing fewer people than some of its neighbors like Virginia or Kentucky.
Douglas: In your report it said West Virginia confines youth at one of the highest rates in the country? What’s that all about?
Bertram: What we know is over the last 10 years, youth confinement in the U.S. has dropped dramatically. Actually, there were six states, although I couldn’t tell you what they are off the top of my head, that stopped incarcerating youth entirely during the years of the pandemic. So when we say it has one of the highest rates of youth incarceration in the country, the context is that there are many states that are no longer putting any youth in detention facilities at all.
States are looking at different ways of handling young people who are truant, or commit crimes — solutions that you can pursue in the community or ways of resisting arresting and incarcerating so many young people. So that’s certainly an area where West Virginia could still move forward.
Douglas: So we’re not 10 times higher than everybody else, because we’re just locking up all of our kids, but because so many other states have dramatically reduced their numbers.What else can you tell me about West Virginia?
Bertram: Well, I do want to go back to a question that you asked a couple minutes ago about what the data shows us about correctional control rates and punishment rates in West Virginia. And just to point something out, which is, if you look at every state’s prison and jail, parole and probation, what you’ll see is that there are many states that appear to be a lot better on incarceration rates. Then when you add in probation and parole, they look a lot worse.
Connecticut, for instance, you compare West Virginia with Connecticut, they have relatively similar incarceration rates. But Connecticut, when you add in probation, you add in local jails, you add in parole, and all of a sudden, you have a much, much higher rate than West Virginia, because Connecticut is putting so many people on probation right now. We’re actually going to release an analysis about Connecticut where we show that there are many people under supervision in that state who don’t need to be.
So, part of the purpose of our report is to call out some of these states that have a tendency to think of themselves as really good or really progressive on criminal justice, when in reality they are putting a lot of their residents under forms of punishment that are, while not incarceration, still extremely difficult.
On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia’s prison system has been in the news lately with deaths and staffing problems. A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that the number of people incarcerated in the state is on the low end nationally. News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Wanda Bertram, the group’s communication strategist, about the report.
On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia’s prison system has been in the news lately with deaths and staffing problems. A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that the number of people incarcerated in the state is on the low end nationally. News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Wanda Bertram, the group’s communication strategist, about the report.
Also, in this show, since the end of the Public Health Emergency and the unrolling of Medicaid, health insurance workers are already seeing an uptick in inquiries. Emily Rice has more.
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 Concord University and Shepherd University.
Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and 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
After last year’s flooding in Eastern Kentucky, some people had trouble getting insurance reimbursement. But it wasn’t just flood waters that destroyed homes. The rains also brought landslides. We also visit with scientists in North Carolina, who explain how the language we use can lead to misunderstandings about climate change. And, in Appalachia, farmers have long planted their gardens by celestial signs. Berea College professor Sarah Hall has a new book about how that knowledge is still in use today.
After last year’s flooding in Eastern Kentucky, some people had trouble getting insurance reimbursement. But it wasn’t just flood waters that destroyed homes. The rains also brought landslides.
We also visit with scientists in North Carolina, who explain how the language we use can lead to misunderstandings about climate change.
And, in Appalachia, farmers have long planted their gardens by celestial signs. Berea College professor Sarah Hall has a new book about how that knowledge is still in use today.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
We’ve shared several stories on Inside Appalachia about the historic flooding in Eastern Kentucky and people’s ongoing efforts to rebuild their homes and lives. But there’s another, less discussed aspect of the story — landslides — and how tricky it can be trying to get insurance reimbursement.
Host Mason Adams spoke with Kentucky journalist Austyn Gaffney, who’s written about the issue.
The Appalachian Accent In The Language Of Climate Change
Climate change means disruptions to global weather patterns — heavier rain, more intense storms, flooding and extreme heat — among other symptoms. Much of the research behind climate change uses data stored at the National Center for Environmental Information in Asheville, North Carolina, the world’s largest repository of climate data.
Blue Ridge Public Radio’s Helen Chickering spoke with scientists about the trouble with the language of climate change.
Book Bans In Prison
Restricting access to books in school libraries is a national conversation, but what about book bans in prisons?
The Marshall Project is a nonprofit newsroom focused on the criminal justice system. It’s published a searchable database of the books banned in 18 state prison systems, including several in the Appalachian region.
WVPB’s Eric Douglas spoke with Marshall Project journalist Andrew Calderón about the project and what it could mean in West Virginia prisons.
Gardening By The Signs
It’s that time of year when people start planting their gardens. But when should you plant?
Sarah Hall is an associate professor of agriculture and natural resources at Berea College. She’s the author of “Sown in the Stars: Planting by the Signs,” a new book that blends Appalachian oral storytelling with the very old method of gardening by the stars.
Producer Bill Lynch spoke to her about learning about gardening by astrology.
Sarah Hall, a professor at Berea College, has a new book that explores planting by the signs through oral storytelling. Courtesy
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Jesse Milnes, Chris Knight, Tyler Childers, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., and Marteka and William.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Eric Douglas is our executive producer. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.
You can send us an email at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
About seven years ago, the West Virginia Council of Churches created the West Virginia Reentry Council to help people navigate the probationary system while juggling everyday responsibilities.
In the middle of a large open room, students, professors and professionals that work with the formerly incarcerated population sit in chairs. They read their “life card,” which contains tasks and responsibilities the participant must complete each week.
Jessica Lilly
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WVPB
Participants of a reentry simulations sit in the middle of an open room at Concord University.
The 15 minute exercise will represent one week in the life of a newly released person to help participants better understand the pressures of reentry. With a few other instructions, the facilitator starts the timer and the activity begins.
“I need money to complete all of these tasks,” Heather Gregory, Administrative Assistant, with The REACH Initiative said.
Jessica Lilly
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WVPB
Heather Gregory, Administrative Assistant with The REACH Initiative is asking for help at one of the simulation tables.
The REACH Initiative is a new program with West Virginia Reentry Councils.
Gregory is going through the simulation for the first time. The idea is to navigate keeping a job and eating while in the judicial system. Other tables have signs hanging from the front that read words like “Grocery Store,” “Court” or “Treatment.”
Standing at the table working a puzzle for seven minutes simulates a week of work. The representative at the station marks Gregory’s “life card.” After work, Gregory finds treatment and a drug screen on her card.
“She failed her drug screen for illicit drugs,” a woman behind the “drug screen” table says. “She’ll go see her probation officer.”
While at the “drug screen table,” she mentions the old warrant listed on her life card. The drug screen officials notify police, and Gregory is taken to jail.
One out of every 10 West Virginia children have a parent who has been incarcerated. As the adults navigate life after prison, the odds are stacked against them. About seven years ago, the West Virginia Council of Churches created the West Virginia Reentry Council to help people navigate the probationary system while juggling everyday responsibilities.
Beverly Sharp formed the first Reentry Council in the state shortly after she retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Jessica Lilly
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WVPB
Tables line the edge of the large room with signs to simulate locations and activities that need to be completed by participants.
“During those 30 years I would often see inmates come back over and over and over again. I would talk to them and say, ‘What are you thinking?’ and they would say, ‘You just don’t understand. It’s not meant for us to make it out there.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, all right,” Sharp said. “When you hear that a couple of times, you kind of think it’s the person. When you hear that hundreds and hundreds of times over your career, you start thinking wow, there has to be something to this.”
The first council opened in Charleston. Next, councils opened in Huntington, Parkersburg, Beckley and in Martinsburg. There are currently 22 reentry councils across the state. The resources are meant to help those coming out of jail to overcome barriers and become productive citizens.
“Think about your lifetime. What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made. And how would you like to be identified by that mistake every day in everything that you do,” Sharp said. “That’s what happens once you have a criminal record. You’re forever treated like a second class citizen. You go for housing, and you fill out the application. And one of the first questions is, do you have a criminal record? Or have you ever been convicted of a felony? Or have you ever committed a crime?”
Jessica Lilly
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WVPB
Participants stand in line to “visit” their probation officer as part of the simulation.
While the simulation illustrates everyday life challenges, there are federal and state specific barriers that limit the types of jobs convicted felons by law are allowed to obtain. Limitations are put on jobs in the medical field, social work and more.
“You look at social work, who better to be a social worker, than somebody that has walked that journey themselves and understands what those barriers are, and how to navigate those barriers,” Sharp said. “That’s what we try to do through the reentry councils, is we try to educate these community partners, and help them understand how to help individuals navigate through all those collateral consequences and barriers that they have. Because it’s much safer for the public, if we do that, because if you take away housing and you take away employment, you leave somebody no other choice than to commit a crime.”
“We’ve all made mistakes, we should look at that individual as a human being, as somebody that we should reach out to in love,” Sharp said. “You know, maybe take the time to talk to them and find out how [they ended] up where [they] are. Because when you start listening to these stories…you will start to understand how we ended up to be the most incarcerated nation in the world with the highest recidivism rate because of all the challenges that people face, and the inability to overcome those challenges.”
Jessica Lilly
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WVPB
The majority of the participants ended up back in jail by the end of the simulation.
Most participants in the reentry simulation end up in jail. During the simulation, when participants successfully completed a week or even the entire “life card,” participants learned that just one act of kindness made a huge impact; a message organizers hope informs any future social workers, police officers and probation officers.
During the simulation, when participants successfully completed a week or even the entire “life card,” organizers pointed out that just one act of kindness made a huge impact; a message they hope informs any future social workers, police officers and probation officers.
A reentry event is scheduled for May 18 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston.
