West Virginia’s new corrections commissioner wants to emphasize cleanliness and maintenance.
David Kelly told lawmakers that West Virginia still must focus on recruiting and retaining staff for the jails and prisons.
Kelly, a former delegate, spoke before the Legislative Oversight Committee on Corrections and Public Safety during interim meetings at the state Capitol.
Kelly was named corrections commissioner by Gov. Patrick Morrisey in June. He spent 20 years in law enforcement and served on the Tyler County Commission before running for the legislature.
The prior governor, Jim Justice, had called a state of emergency for the state corrections system over a period of two years to address critical staffing shortages. The declaration allowed facilities to bring in National Guard personnel. Justice declared an end to the emergency declaration in May, 2024.
Kelly described progress on jails staffing, but said there’s still a ways to go.
“As of July, we have over 410 vacancies. That doesn’t sound like a lot — that’s uniform, non uniform together — and that doesn’t sound like a lot, and it’s really not but it’s not good enough for me,” Kelly told lawmakers.
“I want to find a way to bring those vacancies down. And we are working diligently. We have job fairs; our folks are going out and recruiting. We have recruiters that do that. We’re doing what we can, and we are bringing our numbers down.”
One factor that would help, he said, is pay raises, including for non-uniformed personnel.
“It continues to be my hope that we find a way to address a pathway to helping the non uniform staff,” he said. “Remember, they did not get the increase when the uniform staff did. They are a vital and intricate part of the daily operations of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.”
Kelly told lawmakers that he wants to focus on improvements to cleanliness and maintenance.
“Across all of our facilities, we have made cleanliness and maintenance a top priority. I know we hear things, but one of my priorities is cleanliness. Another one is the maintenance. We’ve got to keep our facilities running. We’ve got to keep our facilities’ maintenance performed, and my staff is doing a stellar job at doing both of them,” he said.