Family Rights and Advocacy in West Virginia

If someone you love is locked up in West Virginia, the first thing to understand is the structure. In 2018, the state combined its prisons, its regional jails, and its juvenile facilities into a single agency, the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR). That means the same agency runs the long-term state prisons that hold sentenced people and the regional jails that mostly hold people awaiting trial or serving short sentences. Which one your loved one is in changes the rules and the location, so it matters.

It also matters because West Virginia's jails and prisons have been at the center of serious, well-documented concerns about overcrowding, understaffing, and medical care, with multiple lawsuits and a special legislative session in recent years. I have been on the inside, and I know the family on the outside carries a load nobody talks about. This guide is written for you, including what to do when conditions are bad.

What the WVDCR System Looks Like

WVDCR runs two kinds of adult facilities, plus juvenile centers:

State prisons hold people serving longer sentences and focus on programs, work, and reentry. Major ones include Mount Olive Correctional Complex (Fayette County), the state's maximum-security men's prison, and Lakin Correctional Center (West Columbia), the facility for women. Others include Huttonsville, Northern, St. Marys, and Denmar.

Regional jails hold people awaiting trial or serving short sentences, and consolidated the old county jails. There are ten of them, including Southern, Southwestern, Western, Central, and North Central Regional Jails.

To find your loved one, use the Offender Search on dcr.wv.gov. Note there are separate searches for jails and for prisons, so try both if you are not sure where they are. You will get their State Bureau of Identification (SBI) number, which you need for mail, money, and visits. You can also call WVDCR at 304-558-2110.

Staying Connected: Phone and Video

WVDCR uses GTL (now operating as ViaPath) through ConnectNetwork for phone and video. Your loved one cannot receive incoming calls; they call out to numbers set up on their account. Calls can be collect, prepaid collect, or debit prepaid, and all calls are recorded and monitored. Three-way calling, call waiting, and call forwarding can cause a call to be cut off, so avoid them.

To set up and fund calls, create an account at ConnectNetwork. WVDCR also offers video visits through the same system, listed under Offender Calling and Video Visits on dcr.wv.gov, which help when a facility is far away. In a true emergency, since inmates cannot receive calls, you can contact the facility directly and ask staff to pass a message to your loved one.

Staying Connected: Visiting

To visit, you must complete a visitation application and be approved and added to your loved one's visitor list. Visiting hours and rules vary by facility, and many use weekend visiting blocks, so always confirm the schedule with the specific facility before you travel. There is a separate Juvenile Visitation Form for visiting a young person in a juvenile facility.

Staying Connected: Mail

Important: WVDCR has posted a new procedure for friends and family sending letters, so before you mail anything, go to dcr.wv.gov and follow the current mail instructions, since the address and process may have changed. As a general rule, mail must include your loved one's full committed name and SBI number, and all incoming mail is checked for contraband, which can add a few days to delivery.

A few mail facts that are useful to know: your loved one can send and receive unlimited letters, but must be able to pay postage on outgoing mail, and indigent inmates receive 10 stamps per month at no cost. Photos are typically limited to a small size such as 4 by 6 inches. Books, magazines, puzzles, and word searches must be ordered new directly from the publisher, a standard contraband-control rule. Legal mail follows separate rules.

Sending Money

Money you send goes into your loved one's offender trust account for commissary purchases like food, hygiene items, stamps, and electronics. You can send funds three ways: by phone at 888-988-4768 using site ID number 179, online at ConnectNetwork.com or JailATM.com, or through the ConnectNetwork mobile app. Note that WVDCR no longer accepts U.S. Postal Service money orders, so use the electronic methods. Confirm current options and fees on dcr.wv.gov.

Your Rights and Your Loved One's Rights

Most rights inside belong to the incarcerated person, not to family members, but knowing them helps you advocate.

Your loved one has the right to reasonable contact with the outside world through mail, phone, and visits, subject to the rules above and to discipline. They have the right to medical and mental health care, including properly prescribed and administered medication, to reasonable accommodations for disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to practice their religion, and to be free from abuse. They have the right to use the grievance system, the formal way to raise problems, and generally must complete it before a court will hear most claims.

Medical care is the single biggest documented problem in West Virginia's jails. Families and attorneys have repeatedly raised concerns about people not receiving essential medications, like insulin or blood thinners, and about the quality of the jail medical vendor. If your loved one is being denied necessary medication or care, document it carefully and use the resources below.

When Something Goes Wrong: How to Advocate

Push the grievance process, and document everything. Encourage your loved one to file and appeal through the formal grievance system, keep copies, write down dates and names, and mail copies to you on the outside. In a system facing litigation, a clear paper trail matters enormously.

Contact Disability Rights of West Virginia (DRWV). DRWV (drofwv.org) is West Virginia's federally mandated protection and advocacy organization for people with disabilities, including mental illness, traumatic brain injury, and other conditions. It has made a specific commitment to advocate for disability-related medical and psychiatric treatment, including properly prescribed and administered medication, for incarcerated people of all ages who come to its attention, and it can investigate abuse and neglect and access facilities. If your loved one has a disability or mental illness and is being denied care or mistreated, DRWV is a key resource.

Contact the ACLU of West Virginia. The ACLU of West Virginia (acluwv.org) works on prisoners' rights and systemic conditions issues, focusing on broad problems rather than individual cases.

Talk to the attorneys handling jail-conditions cases. Several West Virginia attorneys have filed civil rights lawsuits over conditions in the regional jails and have publicly asked families with knowledge of mistreatment to come forward, saying they will listen and take families seriously. If your loved one has suffered neglect, denial of medical care, or abuse, consulting an attorney experienced in these cases is a real option, and many work on a contingency basis.

Connect with grassroots advocates. Groups like the West Virginia Poor People's Campaign have organized public pressure on conditions in state facilities and helped push for legislative action. Organized families and advocates have already moved the needle in West Virginia.

Use national organizations. The Human Rights Defense Center and Prison Legal News (humanrightsdefensecenter.org) cover prisoner rights and prison communication costs. Families Against Mandatory Minimums (famm.org) works on sentencing. Worth Rises (worthrises.org) tracks the prison telecom industry.

Contact elected officials. West Virginia lawmakers have already held a special session focused on corrections. A letter to your state delegate or senator about your loved one's situation or a systemic problem genuinely gets attention here and can prompt questions that a family member cannot ask directly.

Taking Care of Yourself

Figure out first whether your loved one is in a state prison or a regional jail, since that drives everything. Set up your ConnectNetwork account, use the electronic money methods since postal money orders are no longer accepted, and follow the new mail procedure so your letters arrive. If your loved one is being denied medical care, do not wait: document it and contact Disability Rights of West Virginia or an attorney. Most of all, take care of your own health, because doing time on the outside is its own kind of sentence, and staying steady for yourself is part of staying steady for your person.