West Virginia Corrections Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Fixing W.Va. Corrections Crisis Has Hints Of Possible Resolution

Legislators say fixing the state’s corrections crisis is not just about money. And when it does come to money, they say it’s not just about a one-time funding fix.

Information from the WV Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows there are still more than a thousand open jobs overall. The vacancy rate for corrections officers alone is more than 33 percent. The state’s correctional system consists of 11 prisons, 10 regional jails, 10 juvenile centers and three work-release sites.

In a media briefing earlier this week, Gov. Jim Justice said there may be some steps taken toward resolution next month.

“It’s likely in August before we can have a special session,” Justice said. “Our folks are meeting constantly with the folks upstairs.”

Folks upstairs means legislators. Rep. David Kelly, R-Tyler, and House Jails and Prisons Committee Chair, said the meetings are constant and moving toward a consensus.

“We’ve been working diligently through the summer,” Kelly said. “We’re trying to come up with a plan that everyone can get behind. I think we’re getting closer and closer, and it would be my hope and my desire that we could present something in our August interim legislative meetings.”

Kelly said there are issues that need to be resolved besides the low pay scale for West Virginia corrections personnel when compared to border states.

“There’s a lot of factors that go into these discussions,” Kelly said. “One of the things is, how can we make a pathway forward to try to reduce the overcrowding there?”

Kelly said discussions also include incentives to recruit corrections personnel other than simply using money. He said possible college payments were under discussion, but said there has been no talk about subsidizing childcare.

Kelly said the often-discussed raises, locality pay and possible bonus amounts have not been agreed upon. He did say however, that they will not be packaged as a one-time funding fix, but designated over perpetuity – as “base building.”

“If any legislation is passed,” Kelly said. “It will be built into the budget every year thereafter. That’s what I mean by ‘base building’.”

Kelly said keeping 379 national guard members working corrections jobs under an emergency executive order, duties costing taxpayers $20 million a year, can’t last.

“Those numbers are unsustainable,” Kelly said. “We’ve got to find a pathway forward, to turn the light out above the dome, and to get people through the door that can be hired and that we can retain.”

Justice began his correction crisis comments by giving a potential resolution date and expressing hope for a conclusive outcome. He ended those comments with not quite as much optimism..

“There’s no point in calling a special session, spending your money for two or three days or a week or whatever it may be,” Justice said. “To listen to 15 different solutions and go nowhere. We don’t need that. We’ve got to come to an agreement, and we’re working on it.”

W.Va. National Guard Assistance For Corrections Vacancies Fall Short Of Need

In declaring an emergency over low staffing levels at West Virginia’s corrections facilities, Gov. Jim Justice called on the National Guard to fill the gap. However, the number of vacancies and the number of soldiers and airmen involved in the mission are quite far apart.

In declaring an emergency over low staffing levels at West Virginia’s corrections facilities, Gov. Jim Justice called on the National Guard to fill the gap.

However, the number of vacancies and the number of soldiers and airmen involved in the mission are quite far apart.

After signing an executive order sending guard members to work in state prisons and jails, Justice said in a coronavirus briefing this week that the problem would be handled.

“The National Guard will absolutely handle this situation, until the regular session, if we want to wait that long,” Justice said.

In published reports, Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy said state correctional facilities currently have more than 1,000 job vacancies, most in the correctional officer entry level position.

West Virginia Adj. Gen., Maj. Gen. Bill Crane said 93 guard volunteers are now being trained to assist jail and prison staff. He said they will work in administrative roles like control center management and camera operations, having no direct contact with inmates

“That was one of the stipulations that I put in,” Crane said. “I just don’t want to put any of our folks at that high of a risk when you have fully trained corrections officers that are able to do that mission.”

Crane admitted most guard members don’t figure on prison work as part of their mission statement, but said some do.

“With our military police, we have a mission set that actually is detainee operations,” Crane said. “We have folks that are trained to do this anyway, on the Army side.”

Justice said with every neighboring state paying more to its corrections workers, West Virginia must significantly change its wage structure to solve the problem.

He said with a 60 percent vacancy rate in the Eastern Panhandle, raising pay regionally is something to consider, but said the downside is that the rest of the state corrections workers making markedly less, might feel slighted.

“Then, you got a food fight going on,” Justice said. “Then the next thing that happens is, you may be in a situation where you bump everybody up significantly.”

In 2018, the National Guard provided corrections department assistance for six months. Crane said these missions cannot go more than one year without financial consequences.

“So we’re going to do it for 364 (days),” Crane said. “Our hope is at that point, there will be enough new corrections officers that we’ll be able to back out of that mission set.”

West Virginia Public Broadcasting contacted the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Homeland Security for information on efforts to fill the vacancies but received no response from repeated requests for interviews.

Fourth W.Va. Corrections Officer Dies Of COVID-19

An officer at a West Virginia jail has became the fourth corrections employee to die from the coronavirus, including the second this year, authorities said Monday.

Western Regional Jail Cpl. Christopher Scarberry had been hospitalized with the virus since December and died Sunday, the state Department of Homeland Security said in a news release.

Scarberry had served at the jail in Cabell County since 2018.

“Christopher, I promise you, we won’t forget you,” Gov. Jim Justice said at his regular COVID-19 briefing Monday.

Lakin Correctional Center officer Paula Jo Tomlin died of COVID-19 on Jan. 22. The two other officers who died last year were from the Saint Marys Correctional Center in Pleasants County and the Northern Regional Jail in Marshall County.

There were 915 active cases of the virus among inmates and residents of correctional facilities as of Monday along with 234 cases involving corrections officers, according to state health figures.

The number of people hospitalized for the virus dipped to 994 Monday after peaking at a record 1,097 last Wednesday.

Twenty-eight of the 31 other virus deaths reported since Friday and read by Justice were ages 65 or older. Nine were in their 80s and 90s.

“This thing is preying on our older people,” Justice said, repeating his plea for residents to get vaccinated for the virus. “If we don’t get our booster shots, those people are in real jeopardy.”

State Corrections Commissioner Rubenstein Retiring

West Virginia Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein is retiring this spring.

The West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety issued a news release Wednesday night announcing Rubenstein’s retirement effective April 1. He has been commissioner since 2001.

The release said several construction projects were completed during Rubenstein’s tenure, including facilities in Berkeley, Kanawha, Mason, Pleasants, Randolph and Wood counties.

It also mentions his role in the annual Mock Prison Riot at the former West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville. The release said a total of 1,234 participants from 36 states and 29 foreign countries attended last year.

And the department said in 2013, Rubenstein led efforts that produced reforms in West Virginia and resulted in the first inmate population decrease in modern history.