About West Virginia Division of Corrections
The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitations (WVDOCR) devotes its energy to offering public safety by incarcerating and rehabilitating state offenders. Ideally, the offenders are held in various correctional facilities where they access rehabilitation and corrective programs to help turn their lives around.
The management of WVDOC offenders begins on the first day of incarceration. It assumes a progressive, systematic approach in all state-run facilities, with the inmates receiving the necessary care and treatment according to the state statutes. This way, the Division accomplishes its managerial role effectively. The Division has its headquarters in the state's capital in Charleston.
Before some changes were made on July 1, 2018, the agency was simply the "West Virginia Division of Corrections" and only operated the adult prisons. However, it later absorbed the former West Virginia Division of Juvenile Services and the Regional Jail Authority and assumed WVDOC to create the WVDOCR.
WVDOCR Correctional Services
WVDOCR aims to become the best in providing correctional services through innovations. Furthermore, the Division's mission is to improve the safety of the general population. To achieve community safety, the WVDOCR offers a secure, humane correctional system comprising an efficient community oversight program, preparations of offender reintegration in the community, and responding to crime victims.
The Division's integrity is far beyond reproach since it is accountable to the public, staff, and offenders alike. It betters the offenders' behavior primarily on modeling appropriate acts. Hence, it provides and encourages seeking opportunities to develop or enhance professional knowledge, skills, and abilities. WVDOCR treats all employees, the public, and offenders with fairness, honesty, consideration, and dignity while recognizing diversity.
It also takes great pride in maintaining the organization's quality through performance, appearance, and education. Sensitivity to the needs of crime victims and their families enables the Division to help crime victims in personal empowerment. WV DOC Strategic Goals include:
- Staff safety.
- Eliminating illegal substance abuse in its facilities.
- Reducing costs while maintaining existing levels of services.
- Reducing energy costs.
- Recruiting and training
- Retention and development of employees.
The WVDOC takes a more in-depth look at applying evidence-based practices and the implementation and operation of procedures. As a result, there has been a margin of reduction in recidivism.
The Division imprisons 273 women per 100,000 population, thus ranking it as the state with the highest rate of female imprisonment globally.
WVDOCR Corrections Facilities.
The Division operates:
- Four community correctional facilities.
- Ten adult correctional facilities.
- One county owed contract facility.
- Ten juvenile correctional facilities.
- Ten regional jails across the state.
- Thirteen parole offices
Correctional offices play a crucial role in keeping the community safe and helping offenders lead a positive life.
WVDOCR Services
Services offered include:
Offender Services
WVDOCR offers a variety of inmate services to help them cope up in prison life. These includes:
Accelerated Parole Program
This service is available to all inmates under the care of the WVDOCR. However, all inmates, including those under Life with Mercy and Habitual Life sentences, are not eligible.
Banking Services
The sources of income for inmates is very limited when in prison. Thus, they require help from family and friends. The Division has channeled ways to deposit some funds into the prisoner's trust funds accounts. They may do so by either;
Offenders Phone Services
The Division contracts CenturyLink to offer convicts calling and account billing services.
Victims Services
Victim Services aid in empowering and restoring victims whose lives have been impacted by tragedy, violence, or crisis.
The Division dedicates itself to upholding the promise of treating crime victims with decency, respect, and compassion. It also aims at; fostering mutual understanding among victims, their families, community victim organizations, and correctional personnel; also ensuring that the criminal justice system is balanced for crime victims. Furthermore, all these services are for the general benefit of these inmates.
However, the Division's publicity of the offender victims is limited to the victim's needs. Thus, they cannot publically offer the victims details such as their names and locations publically. In addition, the courts limit their jurisdiction upon the victims' notification and interaction with their offenders.
Juvenile Services.
WVDOCR also provides juvenile services to help these youths amend their ways. These services include:
- Aftercare information, which the Division acquire by working with stakeholder residents and families, and community resource coordinators (CRCs).
- The WVDOCR aims to meet the reintegration needs of juveniles and their families by collaborating with courts, families, and the community.
- Sound judgment to enhance adjudicated youths to reintegrate successfully back to society.
- Juvenile visiting requests.
Correctional Industries
WVCI serves state agencies, county school systems, and political subdivisions as providers of products and services. WVCI is self-sufficient since it uses its revenues to operate the program.
This program is also beneficial to inmates as it serves as a source of income for most inmates under the WVDOCR. In addition, it acts as a rehabilitation program, since to enroll in the program you gave to be qualified with the right amount of discipline, hard work, and drug-free.
WVDOCR Parole Services
The Parole Services oversee all West Virginia and Out-State parolees and Probationers. WVDOCR divided West Virginia into two parole districts and six parole regions. Further, within these six regions, there are 15 parole offices. That is:
- Six offices as regional directors.
- Seven enhanced supervision offices.
- One reintegration coordinator's office.
Parole Officers supervise convicts paroled from West Virginia prisons or other states that moved to West Virginia through the Interstate Compact. The officers assist law enforcement, protective services, Supreme Court probation, and other law agencies in:
- Sustaining a secure environment for the public.
- Protecting the interests of crime victims.
- Helping rehabilitate offender behavior by using the community resources.
- Provide evidence-based reports to the board of parole and courts.
- Give a cost-friendly alternative to incarceration.
West Virginia Inmate Records
Inmate records enable anybody interested in seeing and obtaining information on jail inmates in any state's correctional facilities. These inmate's records indicate the offender's
- Name.
- Date of birth.
- Physical description.
- Charges.
- Sentencing information.
- Expected release date.
- Case number.
- Status of the inmate.
- Whether or not on probation.
- The statute under which the offender was convicted.
How To Inquire Copy Of An Inmate's File From A State Correctional Facility
Individuals may look for an individual under the WVDCOR by going to the Division's official website's offender search area and selecting one of the choices on the left-hand side of the page.
The website enables users to search for data depending on the sort of institution where they think the criminal is in, such as a jail or a prison. In addition, individuals may also utilize the daily imprisonment search tool to locate information about people admitted to correctional institutions in various counties in West Virginia on that particular day.
WVDOCR Inmate Search
The WVDOCR provides a few search engines on how the citizens of West Virginia can locate inmates and the facilities under the Division. These platforms include:
Daily basis incarcerations
An individual may browse through a list of prisoners admitted to each county's regional jail and correctional institutions at the time of the search by visiting this link.
The information comprises the offender's name, date of birth, charges, case number, case status, and admission date. Hence, individuals who want to acquire information on the inmates that the police department and other security agencies bring into any WVDOCR facilities may access their details on this platform.
Since many individuals may not know their inmates' DOC IDs, it is important to search for them using this platform. Furthermore, this platform helps individuals know whether their loved ones are in state prisons, county or municipal jails.
State Prisoner Lookup
When individuals are certain, or their loved ones are in state prison, they may look for them using this platform. Hence, if they can provide the prisoner's identification number or the prisoner's first and last name, they may look for information on an inmate by going to the WVDOCR website and clicking on the Offender Search (Prisons) link.
However, it is important to note that, in this platform, you may only be able to view information on the individuals in the state prisons only. Hence, if your loved one is not in the state prison facility, then you may not be able to view the information regarding them.
West Virginia Jail Offender Locator
On the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority website, you may search for prisoners in West Virginia jails or go to the WVDOC website and click on the Offender Search (Jails) link.
To begin a search, select a county from the list below. Before making assumptions about an offender, one needs to verify the information got. Nonetheless, to help simplify the information feedback on the search engine, individuals may opt to feed in the inmate's full names in the appropriate fields.
Escapees and Absconders
The Escapees and Absconders link helps visitors to examine offender id numbers, first, last, and middle names. Moreover, in some circumstances, photos of people who were formerly in the care of correctional institutions but have fled or absconded.
Limitation To Using The Inmate Search Locator
- They set inmate search locators up for offenders under active supervision, in prison, or on parole status only and housed with the WVDOCR facilities.
- Offenders moved from the WVDOCR custody or discharged will not appear on the Offender Locator.
- The inmates' records are subject to quick changes. Hence, information on inmates may change abruptly, thus requiring individuals to check the information regularly.
- In addition, the website does not include information about some inmates. Hence, there is no guarantee that the locator is self-sufficient.
