Locking 'Em Up In The Mountain State

West Virginia's prisons are so overcrowded, hundreds of convicted felons must serve their sentences in county jails. The jails, meanwhile, are straining county budgets with their daily per-inmate fees.

But the state Council of Churches and a research group at Wheeling Jesuit University believe West Virginia can save the estimated $130 million to $200 million it would otherwise spend on a new prison, if officials rethink their approach to "everything from parole to drug rehabilitation."

As The Associated Press' Tom Breen reports, corrections officials are taking their report seriously.

"The report recommends changing the way the state handles people convicted of nonviolent crimes. It also praises steps West Virginia has already taken," Breen writes. "In particular, it says the state’s 17 day report centers established in the last two years have been valuable in giving parolees access to services ranging from education to help for substance abuse."

The Charleston Gazette, The Register-Herald of Beckley and MetroNews (with audio) also covered Monday's release of the report.

And citing that study, the Beckley newspaper also reports on an interim legislative committee drafted a resolution Monday "to prod the Manchin administration to provide the full $5 million funding of day-reporting centers as an alternative to keeping some convicts behind bars."

But as AP also reports, the push to provide alternatives to incarceration appears at odds with calls for stiffer DUI penalties. A study group gave lawmakers differing views for deterring DUI and punishing repeat offenders within the context of a crowded prison and jail system.

The Gazette and The Register-Herald (with a related story here) also covered that interim meeting.