This post is co-authored by Bryan Phillips, Summer Research Associate The slogan “defund the police,” acknowledges an emerging sentiment that state and local governments have spent and are currently spending too much on law enforcement and not enough on social services, mental health, housing, and education. Research suggests that spending on these and other upstream factors can lessen inequality within communities and reduce…
Criminal Justice
This post is authored by Ryan Brij Stewart, the WVCBP's 2020 Summer Research Associate with the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium in Poverty. He studies Government and Philosophy at Hamilton College. With the emergence of COVID-19 over the past several months, various systems of criminal justice in West Virginia have been forced to adjust their practices…
The recent COVID-19 outbreak at Huttonsville Correctional Center shines a light on why universal and periodic testing of incarcerated individuals and staff at correctional facilities combined with policies to reduce incarceration are so important to protect the health of rural communities during a pandemic. Lack of adequate COVID-19 testing within correctional facilities caught up with…
West Virginia’s regional jails, like correctional facilities around the country, are at greater risk of a COVID-19 outbreak. Social distancing in a prison setting is not possible. West Virginia’s regional jails see a daily flow of staff and newly incarcerated persons in and out of facilities that operate at the edges of being overcrowded. Combined…
It has been well demonstrated that jails and prisons are incubators and amplifiers of diseases and infections because of the tight quarters of correctional facilities. This makes combatting the Coronavirus through "social distancing" and other measures nearly impossible. To that end, West Virginia has taken some measures to slow the spread of the Coronavirus within…
Editor's Note: This blog post was guest authored by Lida Shepherd, program director for the American Friends Service Committee and all-around wonder woman. With jails and prisons twenty-five percent over capacity and county and state budgets stretched thin, the West Virginia legislature made significant strides this session to reduce the impact the criminal justice system…
When people leave the criminal justice system, a combination of family support, community assistance, and economic opportunity is needed to help them stay out. Having access to employment opportunities is key, providing not just financial resources, but also connections to society that help those with criminal records reintegrate successfully. Read report. Unfortunately, people with a…
Over the last 30 years, the number of West Virginians incarcerated has grown nearly five-fold despite a decline in the state’s population over this time. This steep rise is not due to rising crime rates in West Virginia, but the policy choices made by lawmakers to use imprisonment as a response to crime. Download PDF.
On December 1, 2018, WVCBP Executive Director Ted Boettner presented at the first Mountain State Racial Justice Summit on mass incarceration in the United States and West Virginia. The presentation included information on prison demographic trends, the impact of incarceration on race, wealth and employment, along with policies to move our communities forward. View the…
Every year in West Virginia, around 4,000 juveniles will appear before a judge. Pending the judge’s decision, a juvenile may be given an improvement period to address the behavior, put on probation, referred to a special court, or committed to some form of out-of-home placement. However, the state’s juvenile justice system can be confusing and…