Some lawmakers again expressed hope for a special session to address the ongoing staffing emergency in West Virginia correctional facilities. But Gov. Jim Justice again said he is not ready to call such a session until consensus on action is clear.
“I’m going to stand rock solid with what I’ve told you before,” Justice said during a briefing Wednesday, responding to a question from Charles Young of WV News. going on to describe previous appeals by the administration to address corrections staffing.
In those earlier instances, Justice said, “we got shot down. I’ve said over and over and over, I can’t call a special session and create just a food fight for the sake of calling a special session. I’ve got to have assurance that we’re not going to waste the taxpayers’ dollars, that we’re going to bring the folks back in and get something done. And I’m still waiting. I’m still waiting on my end.”
During the regular legislative session, lawmakers considered but did not complete passage of at least two bills boosting pay for jail workers. Justice called for better pay for jail workers in high-cost areas during his State of the State speech, but otherwise didn’t publicly push. Since then, the governor has acted puzzled about why legislators didn’t act.
Justice declared a state of emergency last August because of corrections staffing. On Sunday, Corrections Commissioner William Marshall told lawmakers at interim meetings that the staffing shortages are likely to go beyond this coming August.
The corrections system’s current vacancies level is 1,022, Marshall told members of the Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority.
That’s a 27% vacancy rate for corrections workers across the jails system.
Eight facilities have 40% vacancies or more.
Those include Western Regional Jail, Potomac Highlands Regional Jail, Northern Regional Jail, Eastern Regional Jail, Huttonsville Correctional Center, the Vickie Douglas Juvenile Center, the J.M. Chick Buckbee Juvenile Center and the Mount Olive Correctional Center.
The National Guard, through the emergency declaration, has been filling support roles at the facilities.
Multiple lawmakers during the committee meeting raised the possibility of a special session to examine pay raises and bonuses for corrections workers.
“We’re still putting it on the front burner, and we’re still trying to come up with a pathway forward,” Delegate David Kelley, chairman of the House Jails Committee, said on MetroNews’ “Talkline” this week.
Kelly, R-Tyler, said he favors significant raises for all employees in the state corrections system. He said that’s because so many corrections workers are going beyond their normal duties. A $10,000 across-the-board raise for corrections officers could get starting pay to about $43,000, he said.
“That would begin to be a game changer. That’s still not going to fix it all,” Kelly said. “I still like the idea of a bonus. I agree with the governor and the Senate that locality pay would help. So I think we’re all on the same page; it’s just getting us together.”
Kelly said millions of dollars to pay back National Guard members plus the ongoing cost of overtime should be taken into account when considering the overall price for those raises.
“So when we begin to look at those things,” he said, “I don’t think the lift is that great.”
