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| Leaders fail to reach consensus on prison overcrowding |
| By wvgazette.com - Phil Kabler |
| Published: 07/13/2011 |
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Judges, lawyers and corrections officials offered suggestions for ways to deal with the state's prison overcrowding crisis, but failed to reach consensus during a legislative interim committee meeting Tuesday. Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein told the Judiciary subcommittee there is no easy solution to deal with an inmate population that is close to 1,800 prisoners over the maximum capacity for the state's prisons. Currently, 1,730 Division of Corrections inmates are housed in the state's 10 regional jails, causing severe overcrowding at those facilities. "I don't think that there's any magic bullet or simple solution where this 1,800 will take a nosedive," Rubentein said. He was reluctant to endorse building a new state prison, at a cost of at least $120 million, noting, "The state can't build its way out of this." However, he is concerned that overcrowding issues in the state's prisons and regional jails could reach a boiling point. "I don't want to see history repeat itself in West Virginia," he said, alluding to the 1985 riots at the old state penitentiary in Moundsville that left three inmates dead. Read More. |
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