Prison overcrowding update

by: ACLU of WV

Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 10:30:58 AM EST

With overcrowding in state prisons and regional jails reaching critical levels, the West Virginia Supreme Court has appointed a seven-member panel to come up with ways to alleviate the problem, the court's administrative director said Wednesday.  

"Our hope is to work with the Legislature and the executive branch to do the best we can to resolve a growing problem," Steve Canterbury said of the Sams v. Kirby Compliance Commission.  

The Sams v. Kirby case involved a state inmate whom the court ruled was being denied access to Division of Corrections training and rehabilitation programs while being housed in a regional jail because of overcrowding in state prisons. The court told state officials to come up with a solution.

We have been following the chatter in the statewide MSM that insinuates building a new prison is the only thing that can be done to remedy our very serious prison overcrowding issue.  

To be sure, if the state only built a new prison, it wouldn't do anything at all to remedy the problem. What WV needs is a comprehensive approach.  We need to demand answers to some very serious questions.  

First and foremost, why does a state with zero population growth have such an exploding prison population?

More to come
   

A solution to overcrowding, resource draining West Virginia prisons

by: ACLU of WV

Wed Nov 12, 2008 at 11:11:18 AM EST

In today's Charleston Gazette, the AP has an article concerning the serious issues of rising prison costs and overpopulation.

From the Gazette:

This year, the state is expected to spend nearly $156 million to house, feed and provide health care to about 6,000 inmates in work release centers, regional jails and correctional centers across the state. The system is already over capacity as about 1,000 additional state inmates are being housed in one of 10 regional jails.

However, amongst the conversation, West Virginians need to talk about more than just building new prisons. We need to start having an honest conversation about how much money we are spending locking up non-violent drug offenders in this state. I am willing to bet that if West Virginia had a more sensible approach to dealing with non-violent drug offenders, then we probably wouldn't have near the issues with overcrowding and cost that we have now.