Saying the system is “overrun,” Gov. Jim Justice reported this week there were more than 1,000 active cases of COVID-19 in West Virginia’s corrections system. With 800 cases pending, that number is only expected to climb.
We've said it before and we'll keep saying it: these overcrowded facilities are breeding grounds for the virus and a threat to public health.
While the rest of the nation’s jails and prisons lowered their incarcerated populations during the pandemic, West Virginia’s actually increased. Its important to remember that most people being held in regional jails haven’t been found guilty of crime – they just can’t afford to purchase their freedom.
It's past time officials began releasing as many people as is safe to get this infection rate under control.
Instead, state lawmakers are considering HB 4006, which is a near-total rewrite of the state’s criminal code. The bill will undoubtedly lead to more people behind bars, for longer amounts of time. How could we even consider this, especially given the situation at hand?
It’s time to end the War on Drugs era thinking that got us into this mess. Locking people up doesn’t solve social ills, it only creates more.
The House Judiciary Committee is taking up HB 4006 on Monday. Have you contacted the committee yet to tell them to vote “no” on making our jails and prisons more overcrowded?