Prisons and such

Prison overcrowding is still a major issue in WV, as it is around the country. On the bright side, the issue is starting to get more serious attention here. The following news item is a good example. It cites a report jointly published by the WV Center on Budget and Policy, the Partnership of African American Churches and the American Friends Service Committee.

I was also glad to see this item in the Daily Mail, which looks at the issue of parole violations. A good bit of recidivism in WV is the result not of additional felonies but rather of technical violations. One way of whittling down the problem of overcrowding is to find better ways of dealing with these than locking people up for additional months or years.

DOH. El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia got low marks for livability in a recent survey.