By Beth Sergent, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Monday at the state Capitol, West Virginia county commissioners worried about how they will pay their jail bills.
Regional jail costs continue to affect counties across the state despite legislation passed in 2023 meant to provide some relief.
At Monday’s legislative interim session, the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority led a presentation, with testimony from county commissioners and members of the corrections community, regarding House Bill 3552. The legislation modified payment of daily jail costs for housing and maintenance of inmates and provided discounted, base and overage rates, based upon usage.
“It’s getting to the point where financially, it’s becoming more and more difficult for us to meet the [daily] rates,” said Berkeley County Commissioner Eddie Gochenour, who also praised the “tremendous job” the regional jail does to house and care for inmates before also speaking about the financial burden of the costs for that care.
Despite concern with per diem rates, Gochenour said he sees a silver lining in the bill.
“[HB 3552] did have a significant impact for Berkeley County,” he said. “That alone was a savings to us of about $370,000, so that legislation was very helpful to us.”