West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Commissioner David Kelly spoke on September 9, 2025 to the legislative Oversight Committee for corrections and public security (Photo by Will Price/West Virginia Legislative Photography)
West Virginia is making progress in combating personnel deficiency in its overcrowded prisons and prisons, but hundreds of positions do not remain occupied. David Kelly, Commissioner of the State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of the State, told the legislators that this was still one of the main problems in the department.
“From July we have over 410 vacancies,” he said on Tuesday to members of the legislative Oversight Committee for corrections and public security. “I want to find a way to reduce these vacancies and we work hard.”
He added: “We trained over 1,000 [new employees] Since January 2024. This is an amazing statistics. “
Kelly entered the role of the Commissioner In June After serving as a republican legislator in the Delegate House. During his legislature he was in front of the country Increases for prison officers while A personnel crisis That caused this to A state of emergency From 2022 to last year.
But the 2023 increases and setting of bonuses Under the former governor Jim. Justice of $ 21 million, only uniformed officers kept uniformed officers who leave out uniformed employees in prisons such as chefs, consultants and more.
“You have no enhance like the uniformed personnel.
The state department for corrections and rehabilitation of the state has more than 354 million dollars budget for 16 judicial plants, salaries of the prison officer and more. The state’s youth correction services under DCR have a separate budget of around 57 million US dollars.
Kelly said that there are several counties Do not pay for your prison billsPress the costs into the state. West Virginia Counties pay the state per inmate and day in regional prisons.
“There are counties that simply cannot pay … and that is due to the financial situations of the counties,” he said. “If you can’t pay, it costs the state more.”
Good things happen in the correction system, said Kelly and found a program that imprisoned people with protection animals for training and care. Through a paw from the prison program, the dogs later award veterans with post -traumatic stress disorder or children with disabilities for therapy purposes.
“The program has proven to be transformative. It increases the morals of our inmate population that does this,” said Kelly. “It teaches responsibility and builds up empathy. This prepares inmates for a successful reintegration into society.”
Kelly focuses on rehabilitation, if possible, and keeps the state’s relapse rate low. However, he explained that there are challenges that people reintegrate into the community, especially when it comes to finding jobs and apartments.
He found that the state costs 90.16 USD per day for each detained person. The medical costs contribute to these costs.
“We currently have 11 inmates who granted probation and exhausted all funds for accommodation,” said Kelly. “Most of them are sex offenders or others who have medical problems. We are still trying to find a reasonable house for people who have to be able to continue.”
Del. Hollis Lewis, D-Kanawha, also said that living was a challenge for occupants who had completed their time with DCR. “I know when I was in the probation authority, the apartment was a big problem for the occupants who were ready and qualified for probation,” he said.
Decision to serve a few meals on the weekend
Kelly also told the legislators that DCR was reversed His latest decision Serve detained people on weekends instead of three meals a day.
Lewis questioned the idea behind the change and asked Kelly to explain that the department tested two meals with the same calorie number and the nutrient number, which can be found in three meals to see if it was feasible. A lot of food was ejected on the weekends, he said.
Kelly said it was a test “that didn’t work.”
“If we run a program and do not correspond to our excellence standard, we won’t keep it,” he said. “We rolled it back immediately and brought things back to three meals a day.”
Before the meeting, Family members of imprisoned West Virginians and spiritual Kelly delivered letters to Kelly, who asked him to fix problems with food, which was served in state prisons and prisons.
“Although this decision has decreased, there is no guarantee that DCR will not try to serve fewer meals again said. “As families of imprisoned West Virginians, we believe that our relatives deserve to be treated with respect.”
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