Marijuana Policy Project

CHARLESTON — As counties are being pushed to the edge in paying regional jail tabs, lawmakers pondered cost-cutting measures Tuesday and a higher tax on alcohol to provide a revenue stream.

One suggestion advanced by Delegate John Ellem, R-Wood, would allow miscreants accused of misdemeanor offenses to be released on simple recognizance bonds rather than be locked up overnight.

"I don't see why you should have people sitting in jail with misdemeanors, unless you have some aggravating factors," he told fellow members of the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority.

But House Judiciary Chairman Carrie Webster, D-Kanawha, voiced concern that some safeguards would need to be inserted in any such bill in the 2008 session to keep violent offenders from getting freed on such a universal bond.

Otherwise, she cautioned, "People may run from it."

"I hate to have a one-size-fits-all statute, but I still think you can do it," Ellem said.

Counties across the state have struggled to make ends meet in paying the rising costs of locking up their inmates in regional jails. Keeping an inmate locked up for one day costs $48.50.

Last week, the state Supreme Court ordered Cabell County to pay its overdue and disputed bill, but also suggested the Legislature seek ways of easing the burden on counties.

Acting on their own, some counties, such as Raleigh, are moving into alternate sentencing methods, such as day reporting centers. Raleigh's bill for fiscal 2007 shot up to $2,608,233, an increase of $502,227.50 from the previous year.

Both Patti Hamilton, director of the West Virginia Association of Counties, and Vivian Parsons, director of the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia, agreed with a panel co-chair, Sen. Shirley Love, D-Fayette, to look into a proposal for hiking the tax on alcohol.

About one-fourth of all initial charges contain the term "alcohol," Hamilton pointed out, and other crimes, such as domestic violence, can be linked to such abuse.

As one observer noted, Love recalled, "We've taxed everything but alcohol in the last 20 years. Maybe it's time for an increase."

One estimate provided by Parsons was that a raise in the tax per barrel of beer would fetch an additional $7 million.

"Maybe the better (tax) approach is on consumption where they're (drinks) sold," she said.

Hamilton offered other ideas to saving dollars — a 12-hour billing cycle in lieu of a 24-hour one, a work-permit program for first-time DUI offenders and ending the practice of locking up folks for unpaid fines, fees and court costs.

By eliminating jail time for suspended licenses and registrations, and driving on revoked operator's cards, counties could be spared 33 percent of the total lockups.

"It's starting to look like debtors' prison," she lamented.

Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, D-Monongalia, a longtime supporter of alternate sentencing, renewed his call to keep petty offenders from being locked up.

"It seems ridiculous we have all these people in jail for non-violent crimes," he said.

Except for property taxes, Parsons reminded the committee, counties are basically without any means to raise money.

"At the end of the day, we just get the bill," she said "We have practically no taxing authority at the local level."

The panel agreed to ask for an additional $5 million for the community corrections fund.

In line with that, Dale Humphreys, director of Juvenile Services, lauded day reporting centers, saying the concept is "the way to go in the future." This would allow offending minors to stay in residences at a time when West Virginia is shelling out $30 million to send troubled kids to out-of-state facilities, he said.

Elaine Harris, an international representative of the Communication Workers of America, urged the panel to consider a $2,000 increase in the entry level pay of correction workers, who now get $20,124 in starting out.

"I think that will go a long way in recruiting," she said, adding the proposal bears a $2.5 million fiscal note.

For veteran workers, she asked for a $2,000 pay increase after two years, $1,000 on the fifth anniversary and $1,000 after every three-year increment thereafter, along with unspecified improvements in the retirement system.

Harris handed Love and the other co-chair, Delegate Dave Perry, D-Fayette, plaques for helping securing last winter's pay increase for correction workers, an overall $5,000 boost. Known as the "2-2-1," it provided a $2,000 boost last summer, a similar amount next year and the final $1,000 in 2009.