CHARLESTON — The state Corrections commissioner told lawmakers Thursday that a staffing crisis has started to ease and that National Guard support has begun to be drawn down.
Corrections Commissioner William Marshall also fielded questions about eligibility for parole and conditions in facilities when he spoke before the House Jails and Prisons Committee.
Gov. Jim Justice declared an emergency over staffing in jails in August 2022. Last year, the Legislature approved financial incentives meant to help recruit and retain jail workers.
Marshall told delegates that the situation isn’t fixed but that it is improving. He said officer vacancies are now under 600. And the total vacancy rate for the Division of Corrections is about 850, he said.
“We are very excited about the most recent things that have happened within our division,” Marshall said. “We are really excited about the new hires that we have been able to bring on.”
He said 279 workers have gone through training and another 50 or more are in training.
That has allowed the start of a drawdown of some National Guard personnel from support roles in the past week.
“I’m really excited to be able to start to see the drawdown on the National Guard presence in our facilities. They’ve done an amazing job. They’ve brought a sense of stability and professionalism to our facilities that we’ve really appreciated and, to be honest, very much needed.”
West Virginia’s jails system has been the subject of several additional areas of scrutiny.
Conditions in the jails system are at the center of a federal law suit demanding hundreds of millions of dollars be spent on deferred maintenance and to fill worker vacancies.
A crowd gathered at the Capitol earlier this month to draw attention to conditions in West Virginia’s jails system, particularly fatalities like the Dec. 22 death of a 24-year-old man who was found unresponsive in his cell at Southern Regional Jail.
And six former West Virginia corrections officers have been indicted in the beating death of Quantez Burks, a 37-year-old pretrial defendant at Southern Regional Jail, in a “blind spot” not monitored by a surveillance system after he was restrained, handcuffed and in the custody of multiple officers.
Delegate Hollis Lewis, the minority chairman of the Jails committee, asked Marshall generally about conditions for incarcerated people. And he also asked about people who could be eligible for probation but who have trouble meeting the full set of requirements.
After the committee meeting, Lewis said he wanted insight and assurances on both areas of accountability.
“I had two primary areas of concern. Number one, obviously being the conditions at our various jails and prisons around the state — what happened at Southern and various other jails. So I want to make sure the conditions are at a humane level,” said Lewis, D-Kanawha.
“The other was regarding parole. I know a lot of inmates have been held up previously, not eligible for parole because they weren’t in certain classes or they weren’t able to get into certain classes timely. So it’s important that when we have this influx of money into Corrections that not only is that money going to our officers but our support staff, those counselors, those teachers who can facilitate those classes.”
Marshall responded to the question about parole by agreeing that jail support staff like counselors and therapists are among the most needed positions. Corrections is trying to make those jobs more appealing, he said. “They have as much inmate contact as what an officer does,” he said.
And on jail conditions, Marshall described a desire for accountability.
“When you walk through that door, you better be aware of what you have to do that day. Every day,” he said. “And that’s being accountable to not only myself but all the leadership all the way through. I will never stand for or tolerate any type of conditions that aren’t satisfactory in my eyes.”
