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…
Criminal Justice
The Dominion Post - Gov. Jim Justice has made an art form out of speaking much but saying little, and his meaningless verbal abstractions were on full display at a news briefing earlier this month as he non-answered questions about West Virginia jails' myriad problems. If you sifted through enough of the ramblings and Justice-isms,…
West Virginia MetroNews - Gov. Jim Justice has called for a reexamination of conditions in West Virginia’s jails along with an internal investigation, although it’s not completely clear what the focus will be. Read the full article. Justice described wanting a closer look at the jail system during a news briefing earlier this month. The state had…
This guest blog post was authored by Brent Radabaugh. Brent is serving a life with mercy sentence at Huttonsville Correctional Center. He is a graduate of the Bible College, a peer mentor, and a proud father of two young men. There was a time in my life when I don’t think I could have changed…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Last month, Derek Hudson walked out of Charleston’s Bream SHOP to find a distraught man yelling that his bike had been stolen from the sidewalk. The man paced back and forth, on the verge of tears. The handful of people outside Bream SHOP averted their eyes and avoided engaging with him. Read…
Public News Service - A new study of incarceration trends shows Black people are jailed at a rate three times higher than their white peers in West Virginia, even though they only make up 14% of the population. Read the full article. In addition, research from the Prison Policy Initiative found disparities in the criminal justice system…
Over the last year and a half, the public has learned what people behind bars have known for years: that the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitations (DCR) consistently fails to keep people in its custody safe. Since the beginning of 2020, 217 people have died in a West Virginia jail or prison. This…
WCBC - West Virginia’s contracts with Aramark Correctional Services have come under scrutiny after a lawsuit by prisoners alleges they were regularly served spoiled milk and undercooked or rotten meat. Teri Castle, former Fellow at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, explains Aramark cuts corners, and then makes more money when people buy…
Public News Service - West Virginia's contracts with Aramark Correctional Services have come under scrutiny after a lawsuit brought by incarcerated residents, alleging they were regularly served spoiled milk and undercooked or rotten meat. Read the full article. Teri Castle, former criminal legal reform fellow at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, alleged…
For Immediate Release: September 12, 2023 Contact: Sara Whitaker, 304-610-6391 Charleston, WV – Since 2015, West Virginia prisons have sent more than $57.1 million out of state to pay for food served in its prisons. Privatizing prison food has resulted in poorer food quality and worse health outcomes. A 2022 class-action lawsuit filed against the Department of Corrections and…