The governor’s call for a special session largely centered on fixing pervasive jails problems, including correctional officer vacancies and overcrowding.
BY: AMELIA FERRELL KNISELY, CAITY COYNE AND LORI KERSEY – AUGUST 7, 2023 9:03 PM
Almost exactly a year after Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for West Virginia’s jails — where correctional officer vacancy rates are at an all-time high and mortality rates
EditSign for those incarcerated are some of the highest in the nation — the state Legislature tackled a number of proposed laws Monday attempting to confront the challenges.
Many of Monday’s fast-tracked bills focused on improving staffing at the state’s correctional facilities, where the officer vacancy rates is around 30%. The proposed bills — passed by the Senate and on third reading in the House — would raise the minimum pay to $40,000 for a correctional officer. Other measures would provide a one-time retention bonus of $2,000 to all correctional officers and set new minimum pay grades for corrections workers of all ranks.
The jails staffing crisis was a central reason Justice called lawmakers to Charleston Sunday for a special session.
Justice asked the National Guard last year to help fill correctional officer vacancies. Lawmakers learned Monday that there are currently 340 Guard members filling in, a band aid that has cost the state around $20 million over the last fiscal year — more than the projected cost of the pay raise, lawmakers said.
Even if we found a good solution — the perfect solution — for our (jail) system, I don’t think people realize the National Guard is going to be in our jails for at least the next year, year and a half.
– Delegate Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh
Putting Guard members in jails, Steele continued, made the state “look like a third world country.”
There are currently 700 vacancies for correctional officers in West Virginia, which includes the hundreds of positions being filled by National Guard members. William Marshall, commissioner of the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the Eastern Panhandle is experiencing a critical shortage, with one jail dealing with 12 correctional officers for 460 inmates. The National Guard was helping there too, he said.
Marshall told lawmakers the pay raise was “a good step in the right direction,” but said he couldn’t give a timeline of how quickly they’d be able to fill staff vacancies.
Lawmakers advanced a bill that would give other jail and prison employees, including cooks and therapists, a one-time, 5% retention bonus. Marshall said that cooks, therapists and others have been filling in as corrections officers amid the staffing problems.
The set of retention bonuses for corrections employees would cost the state around $71,000.
Temporary IDs for formerly incarcerated people
The Senate passed a bill Monday to extend the time that identification cards issued by the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation to people released from jails are valid. The House’s version of the bill — HB 106 — advanced to third reading on Monday and will be voted on Tuesday.
The bill, SB 1006, would allow people released from the state’s jails to receive a free ID card valid for up to 180 days. It would update a 2019 bill that only allowed the cards to be in use for 90 days.
Members on the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill via a voice vote Monday afternoon before it headed to the Senate floor, where it passed 31-1 with two members absent and not voting. Senator Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, was the only no vote.
In Judiciary, Stuart said he was concerned about “undocumenteds” — or people without permanent, legal residency — using the legislation to receive a West Virginia ID. Both the existing code and the proposed bill, however, strictly limit the ID cards to people who are already U.S. citizens.
Experts have said state-issued identification cards are crucial for people who are formerly incarcerated to re-enter their communities. Often, an ID of some kind is necessary to acquire employment and housing or apply for aid programs like SNAP.
Senator David “Bugs” Stover, R-Wyoming, worked for years as a Wyoming County circuit clerk.
“I recall at least eight to 10 instances of someone getting out, they’ll have a job opportunity waiting on them and then they didn’t have an ID and we would scramble to get them one,” Stover said. “ I know that is very important — sometimes crucial — to have it for them the minute they walk out the door.”
Jail fee reimbursement
The Senate also passed SB 1007, which would require 31 municipalities in the state to reimburse their county commissions for jail fees in certain circumstances to help cover the cost of operating the jails.
Municipalities with more than 4,000 residents in the most recent Census count would be mandated to pay per-diem jail costs for up to five days in cases that result from a charge that could have been brought up in municipal court but was instead brought to magistrate court.
These charges are applied when there is a local law that mirrors a state law, but local officers pursue the state charge instead of the municipal one.
If there is no municipal court, then the law would not apply, according to counsel for the Senate.
The bill is similar to a piece of legislation lawmakers passed during the regular legislative session earlier this year. That law — which went into effect in June — made the reimbursement an option for county commissions.
If SB 1007 or its House companion, HB 107, are signed into law, the reimbursement would become mandatory. HB 107 was advanced to third reading and will be voted on by members on Tuesday.
Lawmakers look at medical care in jails
Along with addressing pressing issues in corrections, state lawmakers also turned attention Monday to medical care for inmates.
Lawmakers in the Senate passed a bill, SB 1009, that would prohibit the use of state funds for certain procedures that are not medically necessary for people, including juveniles, in the state’s jails and prisons. Members of the House Judiciary signed off on their version of the bill earlier Monday.
Steele successfully amended the House’s bill Monday morning in the House Judiciary Committee to include birth control as medically necessary. Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, also successfully amended the legislation to clarify that a medical professional — not the state — would determine what was necessary care. “I think as a body we support that someone with a medical background determines that something is necessary,” he said.
The state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation currently contracts with Wexford Health to provide medical care to people who are incarcerated, which cost more than $84 million last year, according to state spending data.
The state’s contact with Wexford already protects the state from frivolous medical costs, said Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, who spoke out against the bill.
“I think we need to be careful here and consider why this bill was placed before us last night with no notice,” he said. “I don’t know the answer to that.”
What’s next
The House of Delegates is expected to vote on a number of jalis-related bills Tuesday as the special session continues. The governor is expected to sign bills that pass both chambers if they reach his desk.
Other things to note:
- Lawmakers on Monday amended and advanced a bill that would authorize the Supreme Court to develop a statewide pretrial release program despite no data on how a similar pilot program had fared. A 2009 state law authorized the Court to develop five pretrial release pilot projects. On Monday, Supreme Court attorney Keith Hoover told lawmakers that the Court had no data on the outcomes of the pilot program, which predated his tenure and the current Justices. The bill was requested by the governor and also allows the Supreme Court to develop an electronic court date reminder system as part of its pretrial release programs.
- Legislators in Senate Judiciary and then the entire Senate passed a bill to clarify and amend conditions for pretrial release. The bill, SB 1008 and HB 108, allows defendants to choose how they will cover their bail. People arrested can either pay cash, put up property or work with a bail bondsman to make bail.
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