Business, Government Legal News from throughout WVWV prison bill tackles drug treatment, parole

CHARLESTON (AP) — West Virginia lawmakers are considering a series of policy reforms to ease the state's overcrowded prisons.

The Senate is chipping its way through a massive omnibus bill to tackle the overcrowding problem that has left regional jails stuffed and has spurred concerns of riots at the state's prisons. State officials hope to avoid building a new prison to hold the additional 1,700 inmates currently being housed in regional jails throughout the state.

The state's drug abuse problem is driving the uptick in the prison population. Lawmakers charged with crafting the final bill say they want to provide the resources to expand drug treatment options within the Department of Corrections.

About three-fourths of all inmates are incarcerated due to drug crimes or drug addiction-related crimes, said Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, and lead sponsor of the bill.

"We've got to deal with their substance abuse, not just lock them up," Foster said.

Drug abusers are more likely to re-offend if they don't get treatment for their addiction. In the long run, it is cheaper for the state and safer for society to provide treatment first, Foster said.

A subcommittee began working Wednesday to revise the bill before it could go before the Senate Judiciary committee. Lawmakers are considering various options, including giving the Department of Corrections the flexibility to increase the number of beds dedicated to its substance abuse program. The bill could allow inmates to reduce their sentences by taking academic classes. The bill might also suggest bail schedules so that judges set bail uniformly from county to county.

Lawmakers are also considering giving low-level offenders an opportunity to expunge both a first and a second conviction for certain drug offenses in an effort to keep new offenders from entering the corrections system. For violating the rules of probation, offenders would face small, incremental sanctions instead of automatically returning to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence.

The challenge for lawmakers is that stakeholders have differing opinions about what solutions will work. It will take money to make changes, said Sen. Evan Jenkins, D-Cabell.

Still, lawmakers plan to forge ahead with a bill this session, fearing a court order that could clear out the state's prisons with little say from lawmakers or prosecutors. Violence at the prisons and jails also is a concern.

"We have a crisis," Jenkins said. "We are one incident away from a potential serious problem, a riot."

Jenkins wants the bill to more quickly funnel inmates before the parole board to ease a backlog of parole-eligible inmates.

State inmates housed at regional jails lack the opportunity to meet certain requirements to trigger a hearing before the parole board, such as undergoing a psychological evaluation or developing a plan to determine where the inmate will live once they are released. Providing those services is a cheap way to ease the overcrowding, Jenkins said.

Rev. Mathew J. Watts, a Charleston pastor who works with at-risk youth and juvenile offenders, said the bill does nothing to address the underlying causes of incarceration, such as poor education and a lack of job opportunities.

The bill also doesn't provide enough services for inmates released to their community. Some departing prisoners have never used a cell phone or ATM machine and they need help transitioning into society in addition to housing and job training, Watts said.

He said state officials must decide who they want locked up and that West Virginia should rely more on alternative sentencing programs, such as home monitoring or work release for non-violent offenders.

Putnam County Prosecutor Mark Sorsaia told lawmakers that providing more options for inmates to reduce their sentence through good time credit would let violent and habitual criminals out on the streets. He criticized the proposed bail changes, saying that it would remove judges' discretion to hold suspects who they consider dangerous.

"I don't think this bill will help us one bit. I think it will cause chaos and confusion on the local level," Sorsaia said.