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. Read the full op-ed. This could be a moment for action — a chance to finally address…
Criminal Justice
At the start of the 2024 legislative session, there is a rare moment of consensus. People behind bars, their loved ones, the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR), and lawmakers are all in agreement: West Virginia must address and reduce jail overcrowding. The good news is that lawmakers need not look far for a solution.…
Dominion-Post - As the 2024 legislative session opens today, there are certain words already on lawmakers’ lips: drugs, addiction, substance abuse, fentanyl. Read the full article. And one more: punishment. Over the last few years, as West Virginia has tried to wrangle an out-of-control drug crisis, lawmakers have talked a big game on prevention and…
WDTV - A class-action lawsuit focuses on conditions in West Virginia prisons, namely an overcrowding issue that has been increasing since 2000. Read the full article. The lawsuit claims that between 2000 and 2009 West Virginia’s prison population more than doubled, the leading growth rate in the nation. And from 2018 to 2022 that got…
West Virginia MetroNews - West Virginia has long had a problem with overcrowding in its jails, and that problem hasn’t gone away. Read the full article. Overcrowding is a through-line in a class action lawsuit about conditions in the jails, a root with other problems branching out. The lawsuit underscores that between 2000 and 2009 West Virginia’s…
Despite officials denying overcrowding in West Virginia's regional jail system, our research reveals that nearly one-third of people in our state's jails are assigned to sleep on the floor. Download the full fact sheet here.
For 21 months our state has been embroiled in a preventable jail crisis. During that time, lawmakers never asked for testimony from people living behind bars. They never asked for testimony from the parents, spouses, or children of people living behind bars. Only once did they hear from two people who had been previously incarcerated.…
In March 2022, Governor Jim Justice announced that he had directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to investigate Southern Regional Jail (SRJ). In the days leading up to the governor’s announcement, media reports described horrifying conditions at the Raleigh County jail: filthy and broken accommodations, people sleeping on wet floors, violence against incarcerated people…
West Virginia Watch, Cumberland Times-News - Millions of dollars will be released to county commissions across the state by the end of this year as part of their share of opioid settlement funds, and now local leaders are grappling with a tough decision: whether or not to use the influx of cash to get ahead…
Mountain State Spotlight - West Virginians are still held in jails where conditions can be brutal, nasty and deadly. Read the full article. In just the past four years, 85 people have died in custody, more than a quarter of them at the Southern Regional Jail alone. Overcrowding has led to lawsuits that allege people…