CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice held a ceremonial bill signing on Thursday of legislation to provide state’s corrections workers with significant pay raises.
House Bill 4142 will increase wages in the Division of Corrections, Regional Jail Authority and Division of Juvenile Services by a total of $6,000 over the next three years beginning July 1. Correctional officers will also receive a 5 percent pay increase as a result of the pay raise bill affecting all state employees. This brings the total raise to $8,000.
“A little over a year ago, we had nowhere to turn,” Justice said at the state Capitol. “If someone would have rolled in in time and said our correctional officers were grossly underpaid and we need to raise their pay to this level and create a path for career building and everything, what would we have said? We’d have said, ‘There’s no way. We can’t do that. There’s no way.'”
Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary Jeff Sandy said the bill “also develops a career path so those correctional officers know what their futures will be.”
Justice also ceremonially signed House Bill 4338, which will consolidate most corrections operations under the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It is part of the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.
Both bills go into effect July 1, 2018, although the implementation of House Bill 4338 has to be done before July 1, 2019.