Charleston Gazette-Mail – Three days before Christmas, a 24-year-old man died at the Southern Regional Jail in Raleigh County. He was one of at least 27 people who died at that one facility over the past three years.
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This could be a moment for action — a chance to finally address West Virginia’s over-reliance on incarceration at some of the deadliest facilities in the country. Just don’t expect that action to come from the executive branch. The governor and his appointees have shown they are more likely to cover up a problem than solve it.
In April 2022, the governor assured the public that all was well inside Southern Regional Jail. We now know that, two weeks before, a state agency had completed an investigation that catalogued serious, life-threatening problems in that facility.
