In April 2024, the WVCBP called on the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) to make their policies and procedures public.
Like most government agencies, DCR has the authority to create its own policies and procedures. This administrative law covers every facet of an agency that houses tens of thousands of people every year. Each day, DCR staff make decisions that shape the lives of each person incarcerated: when and how to provide medical care; whether to approve a spouse’s visitation request; if a person will be allowed to attend their parent’s funeral; if a person qualifies for medical release; and more.
Until recently, none of DCR’s 200+ policies and procedures appeared on the DCR website – or any other website. Instead, a curious citizen would need to make a public records request for a specific policy to DCR’s commissioner and wait five or more business days for a response. Or, if a citizen is lucky enough to be near Charleston, they could ask to view paper copies of the policies and procedures in the Secretary of State’s office.
The WVCBP and allies from the ACLU of West Virginia and Mountain State Justice used the Freedom of Information Act to request the 200+ policies that are supposed to govern West Virginia jails and prisons. In April 2024, the WVCBP published all the available policies to its own website with a call for DCR to follow suit.
It worked. In June 2024, DCR published the policies on its own website for the first time in its history.
This was a step in the right direction. But DCR must do more.
People confined in DCR’s facilities cannot freely browse the internet and are therefore unable to access DCR’s policies webpage.
Fortunately, there is an easy fix. Every adult and child incarcerated in West Virginia is supposed to receive a tablet. These tablets are a lifeline to the outside: they allow people to message and video chat with their loved ones (at a steep cost); they contain books and education materials; they provide access to a virtual law library of cases; and more.
However, the tablets do not provide a copy of DCR’s policies.
Rules should not be hidden from the people to whom they are applied. We hope DCR does what is necessary and makes these policies and procedures available–for free–on tablets, with paper copies available to those without tablet access.
If you believe that people who are incarcerated should have easy access to the policies and procedures governing their lives, DCR Commissioner William Marshall can be reached at william.k.marshall@wv.gov.
You can continue to find DCR’s rules–updated monthly–on the WVCBP’s designated webpage.
