WVVA - The 2022 death of a man inside Southern Regional Jail due to assault from corrections workers has spurred a new data reporting system in West Virginia. Read the full article. The Quantez Burks Report was recently launched by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. Burks was secreted away, restrained and brutally beaten…
Criminal Legal System
WOAY - In West Virginia, the name Quantez Burks has become a symbol of a more profound crisis within the state’s jail and prison system. Read the full article. Burks died in 2022 after being assaulted while handcuffed by state employees at Southern Regional Jail. Though the state initially claimed he died of natural causes, a…
In March 2022, a group of state employees beat Quantez Burks to death inside Southern Regional Jail. Three years later, eight former correctional officers have been sentenced to a combined 105 years behind bars for their roles in his death. They will serve these 105 years in a federal prison system that–like the state system…
At the end of 2024, Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Maryclaire Akers made a notable request to local lawyers. In a message circulated by the West Virginia State Bar, Judge Akers described a “crisis” brewing in Kanawha County courtrooms: there were not enough lawyers willing to accept court appointments. In tens of thousands of cases…
West Virginia Watch - Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Thursday signed into law a bill to drastically increase criminal penalties for dealing and transporting certain types of drugs in West Virginia. Read the full article. Senate Bill 196 — dubbed Lauren’s Law in honor of a Morgantown woman who died in 2020 after accidentally overdosing on drugs…
West Virginia Watch - A bill that drastically increases penalties for certain drug offenses passed the West Virginia House of Delegates on Friday. If signed into law, advocates worry how the new provisions will impact already vulnerable populations, like people who use drugs, who they say are more likely to be incarcerated even if they…
West Virginia Watch, News from the States - While facing the huge uncertainty around proposed federal cuts to food banks, SNAP and school feeding programs, county officials have been sounding the alarm that if their county jail bills keep increasing, they do not know how their counties can afford funding popular, non-mandated services like senior…
When lawmakers make sentences longer, West Virginians pay twice – first, at the local level through higher jail bills paid by the county, then again at the state level through increased prison costs. If a person is convicted and sentenced to prison, each additional year in prison costs the state $35,452 per person. But higher…
On Saturday, August 3, 2024, a Harrison County sheriff’s deputy arrested Marissa Crim in downtown Clarksburg. In a criminal complaint filed that day, the deputy wrote that he saw Ms. Crim make an improper turn in a car with a registration that had expired in June. After stopping her car, the deputy learned Ms. Crim’s…
Mountain State Spotlight - Betty Hunter was 12 years old when her mother introduced her to painkillers. Read the full article. By her 30s, her drug problem had turned into a full-blown addiction. When the pill mills shut down, she switched to heroin, then finally to fentanyl, the powerful opioid that has supercharged West Virginia’s…