Introduction West Virginia’s Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) is the state’s largest agency with an essential mandate: protecting the health and well-being of our residents. In addition to leading the state’s public health infrastructure, the agency oversees health coverage for 584,000 residents and manages food assistance programs for 150,000 families and temporary cash…
Reports & Briefs
This report was co-authored by WVCBP's criminal justice analyst, Quenton King, and the director of AFSC West Virginia's Economic Justice Project, Rick Wilson. Read the full report here. Introduction Across the United States, citizens returning from prisons and jails face numerous obstacles as they reintegrate into their communities, including finding steady employment and stable housing,…
Read the full report here. Executive Summary There is no doubt to residents and policymakers in West Virginia that the state has a drug epidemic problem that is costly in terms of lives lost annually, as well as expenses incurred for medical and mental health treatment, for law enforcement, and for social services provision. In…
Overview Governor Jim Justice has proposed what he describes as a “flat” budget for FY 2022, with only minor changes from the FY 2021 budget. While the state budget remained stable during the COVID-19 pandemic, that stability relied on tapping reserves, federal stimulus funding, and other temporary measures. The future budget picture remains troubling, with…
Introduction The health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have had profound consequences for West Virginia families and communities, and structural and longstanding health and poverty challenges have been magnified. Before the crisis, West Virginia had the fourth highest poverty rate in the country and among the worst health outcomes and indicators. This made…
Introduction Because county governments must ultimately pay the costs associated with keeping people behind bars in their local jails, the explosion of county jail incarceration is driving enormous and growing pressure on county budgets. County spending on jails is rising, and the amount billed to counties by the Regional Jail Authority is rising even more…
Introduction With West Virginia still feeling the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic recession, the state’s leaders face difficult choices in the upcoming legislative session. The choices legislators make will help determine whether or not West Virginia will have a swift and equitable recovery with an economy that works for everyone. Read the full issue brief.…
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…
Foreword In 1967, Black Americans marched, protested, and even rioted as decades of systemic racism and oppression came to a head. In response, President Lyndon Johnson established the Kerner Commission, which spent the next year researching, holding hearings, and visiting communities to examine racial inequity in the country. In 1968, the Commission issued its report,…
Introduction Despite major gains under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), too many low- and middle- income West Virginians still lack consistent affordable health care coverage options. West Virginia saw the largest drop in the uninsured rate in the country after implementation of the ACA and Medicaid expansion, going from 13.5 percent of the population uninsured…