Criminal Justice

On this West Virginia Morning, we bring you updates on the education and COVID-19 news. Then, a sit down with reporter Emily Allen all about the state's overcrowded jails and what lawmakers have proposed to fix the issue. Our final story comes from a recent episode of Us & Them when host Trey Kay visits Pocohantas County, a place that can hear Mars doesn't have reliable broadband.

Inmates in West Virginia’s state jails and prisons are beginning to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.This week, almost 1,000 state inmates received a dose of the single shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

West Virginia recently opened eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to all adults in the state. But one segment of the population has been overlooked. Inmates in state jails and prisons haven’t gotten shots and they don’t know when they will.

On this West Virginia Morning, healthcare costs continue to rise around the country and can cause tremendous stress for consumers. But several bills being considered by the West Virginia Legislature aim to reduce those costs and put more money in the pockets of West Virginians. Also, we learn about a massive omnibus bill in the House of Delegates aimed at overhauling the state’s criminal justice laws.

A Freedom of Information Request filed by WVPB which was used to analyze sentencing data in the state, showed 20 percent of people who have been sentenced to life in prison under the state’s three-strike law are Black men. That’s one out of every five cases in a state where Black people make up less than 4 percent of the population.

Buchanan is a student documentarian with the Appalachian Media Institute, a program in Whitesburg, Kentucky, that trains Appalachian young people to document the region through their own lens.

A federal judge rejected a request to have several inmates released in West Virginia due to the coronavirus pandemic.U.S. District Judge Robert C.…

West Virginia could be one of more than 30 states to “ban the box” and prohibit certain employers from asking applicants about their criminal history,…

Some state lawmakers in West Virginia are looking at some ways to address our overcrowded prison system and help more previously incarcerated people…

State staffers and advocates for people with disabilities say the state likely is spending “millions of dollars” on involuntarily committing people to…