December 11, 2013

A better idea

Prison overcrowding has long been a problem in West Virginia (and elsewhere). Here, though, well over 1,000 inmates who have been sentenced to prisons remain in regional jails, which are temporary holding facilities that don't offer the kinds of programs that can help people get parole and stay out.

For the best of reasons, the WV Division of Corrections is considering voluntarily shipping such inmates to out of state private for profit prison corporations, which, aside from being expensive is a bad idea for reasons discussed here, here, and here.

Recently, a better solution has been proposed by a program official with the state regional jail authority: hire counselors in the regional jails to offer programs specifically for those inmates. I think there are plenty of other things that need to be done, like actually following through on previously agreed on plans, but we need to reject the Trojan horse of private prisons.

1 comment:

Hollowdweller said...

Here's my suggestion:

OK, so figure out how much it costs to house and take care of a prisoner for 1 year.

Then take all the people in jail for drugs, give them all home confinement trackers and pay them 3/4 the cost of housing them for doing some work that needs to be done.

The money will keep them frome eloping and we'd get some stuff done.