Room to improve

Back in 2013, West Virginia took a long overdue step towards addressing prison overcrowding--and it's paid off. The state's juvenile justice system, meanwhile, is a mess.

That's the bad news .The good news is that an intergovernmental task force has been studying the issue with the help of folks from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Their major findings were released today at a press conference chaired by Gov. Tomblin.

Legislation will be introduced in the 2015 session aimed at reducing the number of juveniles now placed in residential facilities, particularly those held for status offenses, which are actions only considered to be offenses  by non-adults.

This is one area child advocates will be pushing in the coming session. I'm hopeful we can make a dent in this problem.

Good question

This Slate article asks a good question, to wit, why is West Virginia locking up so many juveniles?
The good news is that that is likely to change in the next year or so. Gov. Tomblin has appointed a task force to look at the problem that includes legislators, experts, community leaders and others to look at the system and recommend changes. They have also brought in folks from the Pew Charitable Trusts to help in the process. But it will take plenty of pushing by ordinary folks to make sure some real changes come out of it.

DO YOU EVER TALK TO YOURSELF? Apparently, how you do it matters.

GOT ART? Cave painting and other forms of art may be lots older than previously believed.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Another good thing

As part of Goat Rope's continuing "It's not all bad" on again/off again series, here's another positive step for West Virginia these days. Gov. Tomblin recently announced the formation of a task force to deal with problems in the state's juvenile justice system, which are myriad. One of the major goals is to reduce the incarceration of youth and promote community-based corrections while also protecting public safety.

If that sounds familiar, Tomblin and the state legislature did something similar in 2012-2013 with the state's adult corrections system. That effort was assisted by the evidence-based research of the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments--and it's working. This one will be assisted by similar expertise from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Say what you want about Tomblin, and I often have, he's actually dealt with things like this that others kicked down the road. And he's also made some big positive decisions like the one to expand Medicaid. I wish this effort every success.

It's not all bad, continued

These days, I'm making a conscious effort to remind myself of things that my beloved state of West Virginia is doing right. And there are several. Last time around, I mentioned how WV is a leader in school/child nutrition. And my old sparring partner, the WV Department of Health and Human Resources, has done a stellar job of signing people up for the expanded Medicaid health coverage. And the decision to expand it was another good step taken by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin last year.

Something else that WV has started to get right is addressing prison overcrowding. Since passing legislation in 2013 along the lines recommended by the Justice Reinvestment project of the Council of State Governments, overcrowding in regional jails has dropped by half and the population in the state's prison system is below projections. Other steps along that line have been taken as well.

The latest positive sign is the involvement of state leaders with the Pew Charitable Trust in looking for ways of addressing problems in the juvenile justice system. I'm hoping we can take positive steps in that arena as well.