Attorneys Spar Over Motion To Dismiss W.Va. Corrections Class Action Lawsuit | News, Sports, Jobs
photo by: WV Legislative Photography
Betsy Jividen, the former commissioner of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, testifies before the Legislative Oversight Commission on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority in Wheeling on Tuesday.
CHARLESTON — Attorneys representing inmates in West Virginia’s correctional system pushed back Tuesday on a motion to dismiss a federal class action lawsuit seeking state funding to address major issues by attorneys for the state.
Meanwhile, there is bipartisan frustration by members of the West Virginia Legislature whose attempts to seek answers or garner interest in seeing conditions in the state’s prisons and jails keep hitting brick walls.
Attorneys for inmates in the state’s entire system of 11 prisons, 10 regional jails, 10 juvenile centers and three work-release sites filed a response Tuesday to a motion to dismiss filed last week by Mark Sorsaia, the cabinet secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The class action lawsuit filed Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia against Sorsaia and Gov. Jim Justice accuses the state of understaffing, overcrowding, and delays of deferred maintenance for facilities. The state is accused of violating inmates’ Eighth Amendment constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment.
The inmates are seeking an order to require the state to spend no less than $330 million on staffing and maintenance with available funds or by submitting appropriations bills between now and the next legislative session beginning in January 2024.
Both Justice and Sorsaia filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit last week. In their motion, attorneys for Sorsaia argue that he has no authority to appropriate money to fix the issues cited, with that authority resting with the governor and Legislature. The motion also notes the lawsuit was filed only one week after Sorsaia’s appointment on Aug. 1.
They also argue that the lawsuit has been rendered moot since Justice and the Legislature included money for deferred maintenance for correctional facilities from some of the $1.8 billion surplus for fiscal year 2023. An August special session saw the Legislature pass bills to increase the pay for correctional officers and a one-time bonus for correctional staff.
Former DCR commissioner Betsy Jividen, who was forced to resign by Justice in 2022, was in Wheeling Tuesday presenting before the Legislative Oversight Commission on the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority on a re-entry simulator she helped create to help policy makers understand what those released from incarceration go through once back in society.
Commission Co-Chairman Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, attempted to ask Jividen about jail conditions when she was commissioner.
Before Jividen could answer, Commission Co-Chair David Kelly, R-Tyler, stepped in to keep questions to Jividen focused on her presentation on the re-entry simulation program.
“We’re going to keep these questions tailored for this presentation,” Kelly said. “We’re not going to go back in time. This is not the time or the place.”
“I think it is an important question,” Barrett said.
Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, is a commission member and minority chairman of the House Jails and Prisons Committee. In a press release Tuesday evening, Garcia said many lawmakers are poised to begin the regular session of the Legislature in January with no firsthand knowledge of jail conditions and no long-term solutions.
“We’re here at legislative interims and most legislators haven’t been to an active jail or prison,” Garcia said. “It’s hard to make good policy until you see the conditions yourself and hear firsthand the concerns of correctional officers and staff members.”
In light of recent developments with litigation at the Southern Regional Jail, we need more transparency and accountability with respect to human rights violations in West Virginia jails and prisons.”
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