Labor shortages are impacting every industry in the U.S. and now they're impacting jails in Appalachia.
It’s an issue across the entire country - in stores, in schools, and now in jails. Several correctional centers across the area have been experiencing a shortage in jailers. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said there needs to be something done to address these shortages as they are critical positions and a failure to act on this could cause a safety concern. But this is also happening locally, too.
"The Northern Regional Jail is dealing with all of that right now,” Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard said. “And there's shortages throughout the whole state. So, they're in crisis mode right now.”
So intense, during the 2022 legislative session, Justice directed representatives from homeland security and DCR to engage in a bipartisan group of legislators in order to sponsor House Bill 4843 that would have afforded a $10,000 locality pay adjustment for correctional officers.
The bill was never voted on but why is this happening in West Virginia? Justice said this is due to the lower pay for correctional officers, and Howard and others agree.
"They have raised the wages for them, trying to get more people in but they still the wages are very low for starting out,” Howard said. “I'm thinking about right around $30,000, which isn't a whole lot of money for what they have to do and what they have to deal with."
"Just like the governor says, we're probably short staffed here as well,”...
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