As I reported in my last column, on December 3rd I attended the Legislative Summit at the Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, at which the county commissions of Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson Counties created a list of legislative priorities to present to state legislators. There were several items on the list, but at the top was the rising burden of regional jail costs on county budgets. According to the summary prepared for the Summit, the three counties spent nearly $5 Million in regional jail costs in Fiscal Year 2011 - 2012.

According to Wikipedia, the United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world at 730 per 100,000 of population. The US Department of Justice puts the number at 500 per 100,000, but in reading the footnotes one discovers that this includes only those inmates sentenced to more than one year in federal or state penitentiaries. It does not include regional or local jails - the cost of which was the number one concern of the county commissions.

The population of West Virginia recorded in the 2010 census was about the same as it was in 1960. According to the West Virginia Encyclopedia https://www.wvencyclopedia.org in an article authored by Brad Douglas a research analyst with the WV Depart of Corrections “nearly 90 percent of West Virginia crimes are non-violent, a portion that hasn’t changed much since 1961”. Mr. Douglas goes on to say that the number of crimes has increased since then, but statistics I’ve seen indicate that the number of crimes per 100,000 peaked in 2005-2006 at around 2900 and has subsequently declined. Interestingly, murder and non-negligent manslaughter are the least committed crime in our state, peaking in 1975 at 7.4 per 100,000 before declining by more than a third to 4.3 in 2011.

West Virginia had the lowest crime in the nation from 1971 until coming in second lowest in 1998 with 2547.2 crimes per 100,000 people. Since then the crime rate has not changed much, in 2011 it was 2589.8 per 100,000. However, our prison population increased from 3,535 inmates in 1998 to 6,681 in 2010, an increase of 89%. In other words, the incarceration rate in West Virginia is growing rapidly while the crime rate is not. According to the Pew Center on the States, 2009 marked the first time since 1972 that state prison populations across the nation decreased over all, if only slightly. Budget constraints are likely the reason. Bucking that trend was West Virginia with the second highest increase in the nation (behind Indiana) at 5.1%.

The county commissions at the Legislative Summit focused on raising revenues to meet the rising cost of regional jails. The list of options included: redirect the state’s portion of the transaction tax to fund jails; ensure that municipalities pay their fair share (as an aside - 80% of all crimes reported in WV are in municipalities); increase defendant reimbursement fees and step up collection efforts; tap Marcellus shale revenues; raise taxes on beer and wine. Oh, there was one more suggestion - to improve mechanisms to permit defendants to post bond through 24 hour availability of magistrates on call - the only one aimed at reducing the number of people in jail.

One has to wonder as to why the incarceration rate is rising in West Virginia while the crime rate is not. According to Brad Douglas: “Criminal justice professionals and policy makers are examining the state’s sentencing practices as they analyze this troubling increase in incarcerations”. The West Virginia prison system is overcrowded. People who should be in penitentiaries are currently being held in regional jails. This creates additional problems for inmates as well as stresses on the system. It also results in higher costs that are ultimately borne by taxpayers.

We have some important choices to make. There is a thought regarding this issue that I have now heard articulated on three different occasions - at last year’s Legislative Summit, this year’s Summit and at the Legislative Wrap Up luncheon hosted by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce last May. That thought is that we should incarcerate people who we are afraid of and not who we are mad at. Perpetrators of violent crimes and other serious felonies are people to be afraid of and should be incarcerated to protect the public. However, regarding other types of crime, perhaps we should consider controlling our temper and try another approach.