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The 2023 death count is a substantial decrease from the three-year average of 25 fatalities per year annually from 2020 through 2022. But the latest annual death total remains far above a previous five-year average of 11.2 deaths per year from 2015 through 2019.

Deaths at state regional jails never exceeded 14 in any of those years. They were in single digits annually from 2009 — the first year state officials said fatality and related demographic records existed — through 2014. Most of the incarcerated people who have died at regional jails in past years were awaiting trial, a trend that persisted in 2023.

The 16 deaths at state jails in 2023 included 13 people awaiting trial — 10 for alleged felonies and three for alleged misdemeanors.

The median age of the deceased in 2023 was 45. Of the 16 deaths, four were attributed to natural causes, three to suicide and three to overdose, with six pending.

The median number of days the deceased had been incarcerated after their booking date at the time of death in 2023 was 67.

Five of those who died had been in jail a week or less at the time of their death.

Causes of three of those deaths were listed as pending. One was reported as an overdose. Another was listed as a suicide.

Seven of the 16 deaths occurred at the Southern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility in Raleigh County, which has been the site of 38, or 20%, of the 187 deaths at the state’s regional jails from 2009 through 2023.

Official response

Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Commissioner William Marshall III did not respond in an emailed statement Wednesday when asked about the decrease in regional jail deaths from 2022 to 2023 or the long-term increase in those deaths.

Marshall instead expressed empathy on his agency’s behalf for “the friends and families of those who have experienced the loss of a loved one that was under our care.�

“The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation is committed to the safety, quality of life, and well-being of those in the care of the legal system in our state,� Marshall said in the statement provided by Department of Homeland Security spokesman Andy Malinoski. “We strive each day to fulfill this obligation and purpose.�

The Department of Homeland Security is the parent agency of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

What the data don’t revealÌý

The data don’t tell the whole story of deaths in the state regional jail system.

The deaths don’t include what Malinoski said were two more inmate deaths in late December. Malinoski attributed one death to self-inflicted harm at the Northern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility in Marshall County on Dec. 22 and another to natural causes for an inmate who was a patient at Charleston Area Medical Center Memorial Hospital on Dec. 23.

The data list heart disease as the cause of death for Quantez Burks, 37, at the Southern Regional Jail a day after he was incarcerated in 2022. But, in November, a grand jury charged six defendants who served as Southern Regional correctional officers with causing Burks’ death by conspiring to injure him and then providing false information to state investigators.

The charges followed guilty pleas earlier that month from Andrew Fleshman and Steven Nicholas Wimmer, of conspiring as Southern Regional correctional officers to use unreasonable force against Burks, assaulting and injuring him while he was restrained, handcuffed and posed no threat.

Sara Whitaker, criminal legal policy analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, a progressive think tank, said it’s difficult to trust the jail death data.

“We can change that,� Whitaker said by phone Wednesday. “We’re in the middle of a legislative session where lawmakers can require that there are comprehensive fatality reviews.�

Jail population has swelled

The state correctional system has been beset by overcrowding and understaffing amid a long-term rise in the population in regional jails, which generally have served pretrial defendants and individuals sentenced to terms of one year or less.

The average daily inmate population at the state’s 10 regional jail facilities of 5,307 in fiscal year 2022 was 33% higher than those facilities’ fiscal year 2010 average of 3,984, according to the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s fiscal year 2022 annual report.

“The most effective way to eliminate preventable jail deaths is to use our jail system less,� Whitaker said.

West Virginia’s correctional system has been under a state of emergency since August 2022 because of a personnel shortage that, at its peak, numbered over 1,000 staff vacancies. The state of emergency supplied the Department of Homeland Security with National Guard personnel to alleviate staffing shortages at adult and juvenile correctional and detention facilities at a cost Marshall had estimated to be $17 million for one fiscal year.

The Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation said last week that it and the National Guard have developed a strategy to meet a goal of reducing National Guard staffing in the jails and prisons by the end of summer 2024.

Marshall cited “increased momentum� in recruitment efforts following legislative moves in August to address understaffing, including a $21 million measure to increase pay for correctional officers through Senate Bill 1005.

But inmate advocates say West Virginia leaders have failed to adequately address the sharply rising death count at state-run jails.

Loved ones of those who died at regional jails attributed that failure to Gov. Jim Justice, Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and other state leaders at an impassioned rally at the Capitol in Charleston this month.

“Jim Justice, where the hell are you?� Kimberly Burks, of Beckley, mother of Quantez Burks, said at a Jan. 6 news conference at the Capitol.

West Virginia officials agreed in November to settle claims against the state in a federal lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions at Southern Regional for $4 million. The proposed settlement followed a federal judge finding that state officials intentionally destroyed evidence in the case.

Deferred maintenance

Inmate advocates have pointed to what former Department of Homeland Security and Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation leaders have identified as at least $200 million in deferred maintenance costs throughout the correctional system.

Former Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation commissioner Betsy Jividen and former DHS secretary Jeff Sandy said in court depositions that deferred maintenance costs across the correctional system totaled $200 million to $277 million.

Those depositions came in a federal court case in which plaintiffs who have been inmates in state-run correctional facilities in Boone, Fayette and Logan counties have sued Justice and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia.

The plaintiffs allege overcrowding, understaffing and inhumane treatment of inmates at facilities across the correctional system.

The plaintiffs have asked the court to compel Justice and Sorsaia to spend budget surplus funds to make all needed deferred maintenance repairs at correctional facilities totaling at least $270 million, and hire and pay enough correctional staff to sufficiently staff facilities with at least $60 million.

Justice and Sorsaia have fought the lawsuit, trying to get the case dismissed and unsuccessfully moving to put sharing of evidence in the case on hold.