Published: October 23, 2009 10:30 am      

Frazier: Panel aims to open prison beds

PRINCETON — If West Virginia’s court system continues at its current rate, the Mountain State’s demand for prison beds could double by 2017. The statistics have leaders and legislators worried that West Virginia simply can’t afford such additional investment to keep residents behind bars.

Del. John Frazier, D-Mercer, hosted a town meeting Tuesday at Princeton Public Library to outline the prison overcrowding challenges and alternative-sentencing opportunities he expects to stand near the top of Gov. Joe Manchin’s agenda in January. Manchin appointed a committee to examine the current population inside West Virginia jails and prisons. Members also predicted where current trends could lead and what options could curb the inmate growth rates.

“West Virginia, for a number of years, has had either the lowest or one of the lowest crime rates in the nation,” Frazier said.

In recent years, however, the number of people spending time in the correctional system has far outpaced the growth in facilities and services available.

In 1995, West Virginia’s correctional population stood at 2,512. That number more than doubled within 10 years. By 2007, the total number of Mountain State inmates stood at 6,056.

The prison population grows an average of about 7 percent annually, Frazier said. With the current cost of housing an inmate for a year at $28,000, the Department of Corrections forecasts are cause to be concerned. By 2017, estimates indicate 10,304 men and women will reside inside correctional facilities in West Virginia, unless the state makes some big changes now.

The governor’s commission has issued 14 recommendations that Frazier said he anticipates lawmakers will meet early next year in Charleston.

The plan aims to divert 500 prisoners per year from prison to community corrections programs, such as Drug Court, Day Report Centers and more. Another prime goal is to open 200 beds already within the system by reducing offenders’ lengths of stay in correctional centers.

To get there, the commission recommends that West Virginia:

• Adopt and administer a standardized and validated risk and needs assessment for each convicted felon;

• Expand alternative sanctions, such as probation, community corrections, parole programs, etc.;

• Increase substance abuse treatment and mental health capacity;

• Create transitional housing for parole offenders;

• Establish a policy of “presumptive parole;”

• Complete a review and overhaul of the West Virginia Criminal Code to bring it into contemporary society standards;

• Improve the collection and sharing of criminal justice data in electronic format;

• Conduct process and outcome evaluations on effectiveness of community corrections programs;

• Begin a campaign to educate the public on the urgency of taking action and the importance of community support;

• Establish an oversight group to develop these initiatives and monitor progress made in reducing demand for prison resources;

• Construct a 300-bed facility at St. Mary’s Correctional Complex to provide space for offenders needing inpatient treatment;

• Build or acquire at least four additional 80-bed work release centers for inmates preparing to return to the community;

• Create facilities for special offender populations;

• Construct a new, 1,200-cell medium-security prison.

Frazier anticipated one hot topic locally to be a plan to increase access to methadone maintenance treatment for offenders already addicted to opiates. The therapy administers daily doses of the synthetic painkiller to prevent withdrawal symptoms without providing a high, but it can be dangerous in its own right. In 2006, Mercer County residents and leaders fought a plan to put a MMT center in Princeton, citing concerns that it simply replaced one drug with another.

Frazier said he suspected that item would meet opposition in Mercer County.

“I expect the commission didn’t hear a lot from people in Princeton or Mercer County,” he said.

The audience on hand at the library Tuesday quickly confirmed that thought.

Amber McClure, of Princeton, addressed the audience, declaring, “Methadone clinics don’t work.”

A family member once tried to break his addiction at a methadone clinic, and he quickly found there was little incentive to actually get him off drugs.

“They don’t do the detox. They just keep upping the milligrams,” McClure said.

Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney Timm Boggess said he has seen that trend throughout his career, as well.

“There’s no motivation from the methadone clinic to wean them off, because that’s how they get their money,” Boggess said.

Although the Mercer County audience was skeptical of the methadone plan, they agreed that the drug problem is at the core of the vast majority of local crimes.

“If you dig far enough back, drugs are probably behind about 90 percent of our crimes,” public defender Tracy Burks said.

He also supported the “presumptive parole” plan, which he said should alleviate the fluctuation in people actually being released in a timely manner.

The requirement of home plans and transitional housing establishments could also greatly benefit the judicial system. Currently, Frazier said there are approximately 700 West Virginia inmates who have been granted parole but can’t leave because they have nowhere to go upon release. Transitional housing would help solve that problem and open beds at the same time.

If this plan, or any similar to it, progress through the Legislature this winter, the Mercer Day Report Center would see an increase in its caseload and services.

Director Steve Collins said his facility can handle an additional 100-150 people throughout the counties of Mercer, Monroe, Summers, Raleigh and Wyoming.

“Our biggest issue to talk about would be funding,” Collins said, explaining that adding that many cases would require at least one more staff member to serve as a case manager.

Considering salary and benefits, Collins said that position would cost about $52,000 annually.

Concord University recently studied the Mercer DRC’s success rate and calculated it at 83.12 percent. A success was considered someone who completed their DRC program and did not wind up back in the judicial system.

Like Collins, Southern Regional Drug Court Coordinator Laura Helton said she’d be happy to expand Drug Court locally, but it would require more manpower.

McDowell County Del. Clif Moore said there was one area omitted from the commission’s report.

“As I look at these recommendations, I don’t see anything about prevention. It’s all after-the-fact sort of things,” he said.

Although he supported most of the ideas discussed Tuesday, he said there’s one big question that still remains.

“I think the bottom line is how are we doing to pay for this and how much is it going to cost?” Moore asked.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.