This report was written for WVCBP by Rayna E. Momen, MA. Introduction Over the past 40 years, the mass incarceration of women has exploded in West Virginia (WV), growing by a staggering 2,731 percent from 1978 to 2019. Female incarceration has grown so quickly, in fact, that women are being incarcerated at a higher rate…
Criminal Justice
For Immediate Release: December 10, 2020Contact: Renee Alves, 559-916-5939 Charleston, WV - Over the past 40 years, the mass incarceration of women in West Virginia has exploded, growing by a staggering 2,731 percent from 1978 to 2019. The incarceration rate of women far exceeds the incarceration rate of men in the Mountain State, and in 2019, West…
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, West Virginia law enforcement and corrections officials moved quickly to reduce jail and prison populations. And while the prison population has remained lower than normal, since April, the jail population has steadily increased and was more than 35 percent overcapacity as of November 12. Among the reasons for the burgeoning…
Mountain State Spotlight - Despite a federal judge’s ruling, West Virginia has no immediate plans to distribute federal stimulus checks to people incarcerated in the state’s jails and prisons. Read the full article. The federal government sent many Americans $1,200 checks earlier this year, through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. But for months, the…
Mass incarceration of adults cost the Mountain State over $314 million in 2019. The collateral consequences impact our communities, families and economy. Please join us on Thursday, Nov. 12 for a virtual summit to hear from experts, participate in dialogue and discuss solutions to mass incarceration in our state.Summit Schedule:3 p.m. Dwayne Betts, author of Felon4 p.m. Breakout…
According to a study by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, the COVID-19 mortality rate nationwide is twice as high in prisons compared to the general population. Social distancing is difficult if not impossible in correctional facilities due to their congregate nature. This, combined with the reality that incarcerated people are more likely…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in the unimaginably distant days of springtime, somebody came up with the slogan “West Virginia: Practicing social distancing since 1863.” It made it to a T-shirt. Read the full op-ed. There’s some truth to that, although we didn’t prove to be as immune to the disease as…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lida Shepherd at lshepherd@afsc.org or (304) 356-8428 Download PDF here. Charleston, WV – With a full blown outbreak of COVID-19 looming in the state’s regional jails, advocates reiterate the call to magistrates, circuit court judges, and prosecutors to use the full force of the new bail law to slow the spread of…
This post is co-authored by Bryan Phillips, the WVCBP’s Summer Research Associate West Virginia’s regional jail population has been growing for years at a cost to both county budgets and the safety of incarcerated people. Between 2010 and 2019, the average jail population increased by 30 percent. The average daily population statewide has exceeded total jail capacity for eight of…
This post is co-authored by Bryan Phillips, the WVCBP's Summer Research Associate As the Huttonsville Correctional Center outbreak and numerous outbreaks around the country have demonstrated, jails and prisons are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 transmission. Earlier analyses looked at the overall jail and prison population reduction in the state and the change in arrest rates in Charleston, WV in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.…