By Charles Owens, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
WELCH — The Stevens Correctional Center in McDowell County is now under the control of the West Virginia Division of Corrections.
Legislation introduced earlier this year in the West Virginia Legislature placed the county-run facility in Welch on a path to state control. The transition officially occurred on July 9 with all existing county employees becoming a state employees with improved pay and benefits.
The county commission acquired the former Stevens Clinic Hospital more than two decades years ago, and began the process of converting it into a correctional center with the goal of creating jobs, Commission President Michael Brooks said.
“The building was vacant for some time,” Brooks said of the former hospital. “I was sheriff at the time. The county acquired it around 1998 or 1999. I remember all of the different stuff the county commission put together for the state of West Virginia. They had the ability to house close to 300 (state inmates) at one time. Of course, those numbers would fluctuate.”
