West Virginia is struggling with chronic prison overcrowding, and leaders are warning they need a workable solution now.
“I do believe we’re literally at the point where we can’t kick the can down the road and defer attention to this matter anymore,” Democratic State Sen. Bill Laird, a former four-term sheriff in West Virginia, told The Associated Press. “There’s a great sense of urgency in my mind. I can’t think of any more important public policy issue facing our Legislature today.”
Hope for action has surfaced in a letter signed by a number of influential West Virginia leaders. The letter said West Virginia has the second-highest growth of corrections spending among the states, and its jails have the fourth-highest percentage of felons, as reported in the AP. It pointed out that the increased prison population has caused around 1,800 convicted felons to serve parts of their sentences in regional jails.
The letter asked the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, a non-governmental organization, to examine and advise them on how to reform the state’s penal system.
The state’s prison population has quadrupled to 6,900 inmates since 1990, according to state officials. Drugs and drug-related crimes are fueling the population behind bars. Experts estimate that at least 80 percent of inmates committed crimes somehow linked to drug or alcohol abuse, and about half of the total population are in for nonviolent offenses.
The JRI has assisted 16 other states reform its penal systems, including Pennsylvania and Ohio. Texas reported savings of more than $443 million since 2007 through Justice Center recommendations, according to the AP.
The Justice Center was not the first organization to study West Virginia’s prison overcrowding dilemma. In 2009, a report by the Governor’s Commission on Prison Overcrowding made a long list of recommendations without resolving the problem. “Political influences have often swayed the debate,” reports the AP.
“The idea behind the Justice Reinvestment Initiative is to remove these political influences from the decision-making process,” according the AP. The Justice Center demands bipartisan and interbranch support for justice reinvestment – putting resources toward policies proven to reduce recidivism.
