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| W.V. Jail Inmate Work Stalled |
| By Charleston Daily Mail |
| Published: 12/02/2002 |
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The Regional Jail Authority has put Kanawha County's work-release program on hold after an inmate returned from the Solid Waste Authority intoxicated with a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal driving limit. Regional Jail Authority Director Steve Canterbury said the inmate returned to the South Central Regional Jail Nov. 15 visibly drunk and with a blood alcohol content greater than 0.20. Throughout the day, the inmate had been drinking dregs of alcohol left in bottles he was sorting at the county's recycling center. It also was discovered that inmates at the Solid Waste Authority had been having contact with family and friends while at work, another violation of the recycling center's contract with the Regional Jail Authority. The jail authority also is investigating whether the inmates had sexual contact with wives or girlfriends while working at the center, Canterbury said. 'When we have day-work people out for the day, the supervision gets a little less than rigorous and inmates can behave badly,' Canterbury said. 'The question of whether they were supervised by qualified people (at the Solid Waste Authority) or by people at all is an issue and it is under investigation.' Solid Waste Authority Director Sally Shepherd said there had not been a supervisor on the sorting line when the inmate became intoxicated, but there were supervisors in the immediate area. 'There were other workers up there with him, but apparently they don't like to snitch on other workers,' Shepherd said. '(The program) can't work flawlessly all the time because we are working with individuals who aren't always responsible for their behavior,' she said. 'We try to be responsible for them, and we do the best we can.' Shepherd said the work-release program has been successful for the Solid Waste Authority because inmates work hard and provide labor at no cost to the county. 'The inmates that were coming are very sorry this happened because it was good for them and it was good for us,' she said. Canterbury said it is common for inmates to occasionally act out and abuse the freedom they have in the work-release program. They frequently try to smuggle contraband, such as cigarettes or alcohol, into the jail after a day of work. 'It happens about once or twice a year, we have a guy who has been doing work detail and he comes in drunk or with marijuana or with pills and we catch them,' Canterbury said. 'They're inmates, and they didn't get here by following the rules.' The only inmates who qualify for the work-release program have been convicted of nonviolent misdemeanors. Many have been sentenced for drunken driving, for driving on a revoked license or for drunk and disorderly conduct. Between three and five inmates work daily at the Solid Waste Authority, and dozens more work throughout the county for the Sheriff's Department, doing maintenance on roads or cleaning up flood damage. They are picked up and dropped off at the jail by supervisors from the contracting agency. Canterbury said each inmate is strip-searched upon his or her return to the jail after a day of work. The inmate who returned from work intoxicated and others who violate work- release regulations are taken out of the program and often must spend a portion of their sentence in solitary confinement, Canterbury said. He said he will review each work-release contract for Kanawha County and will examine protocol at the Solid Waste Authority and the South Central Regional Jail before reinstating inmates at any agency. The Solid Waste Authority lost its inmate work force last year after an inmate walked away from the center during job detail. The worker's elderly boyfriend drove up to the center in his Cadillac, the worker got in his car and the pair drove off, Canterbury said. She was located a few days later. The recycling center's contract was reinstated in July. |
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There is a lot of information on this website about inmates and prison guards. I didn’t realize what was going on in our prison system until I discovered this website. Similarly, I didn’t understand litigation finance until I read more from Hamilton Lindley who is a litigation finance expert based in Texas.