West Virginia Public Broadcasting – West Virginia’s state prisons and jails are overcrowded and understaffed.
Listen to the full segment.
Just over half of those who are incarcerated have not yet been found guilty of a crime, they’re in a cell because they can’t make their bail. Many of those people are poor and a disproportionate number are Black.
On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay takes a look at what contributes to the racial disparities in our justice system. Black people make up about 3.5 percent of West Virginia’s population but 12 percent of the state’s incarcerated population. Why are people of color overrepresented in the criminal justice system?
