By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter

CHARLESTON — Plowing money into freeing non-violent convicts of drugs and alcohol makes more sense to the West Virginia Council of Churches than building new prisons.

After all, reasons the executive director, the Rev. Dennis Sparks, any new penal institution erected is destined to become overcrowded, and that only puts the state back where it is now.

“We’ve got to move beyond just being tough on crime,” Sparks said in an interview last week.

“That has not worked in West Virginia. It is a failed system. We’re producing more criminals. As our children grow up and go through the school system, and the juvenile system, they wind up quite often being in a high percentage rate in our prisons.”

While West Virginia has enjoyed a comparative low crime rate in recent years, Sparks says the criminal population continues to grow here.

“We hope the Legislature will encourage preventative programs, treatment programs, over more brick and mortar,” he said.

“We think that is vital. If we build a new prison, it will simply result in overcrowding that prison in a very few short years, and we will back at the same rate.”

An interims panel devoted to prisons and regional jails has been eyeing a different attitude, one that focuses on treating drug and alcohol addicts, who make up the majority of inmates.

“As we said back in 2004, that’s one of the main causes that would lead West Virginia in going bankrupt,” Sparks said.

“Many other states are trying to empty their prisons. We believe we need to reduce the prison population.”

Sparks says 90 percent of all inmates are non-violent, but simply aren’t ready to rejoin society because of addictions that are treatable.

Keeping non-violent offenders locked away merely causes them to develop worse attitudes and behaviors, he said.

“They’re going to learn more about being a criminal than how to function in society.”

Sparks applauded Gov. Joe Manchin for pumping money into a treatment center last year in Huntington.

“It’s a very serious experiment that needs to be replicated across the state,” he said.

Another positive move is the advancement of community corrections program, aided by the use of ankle bracelets in lieu of cell bars to monitor inmates.

Sparks views the proposed Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs as another key issue.

“While being brought forth by the African-American community in West Virginia, it will impact the rights of all minority groups, whether it’s religious or other ethnic groups, so they can have a better play of having access to decision-making in West Virginia, and that the dollars will be more equally distributed,” he said.

West Virginia cannot afford to keep its African-American community, close to 12 percent of the population, out of job opportunities and economic development, he said.

“We’ve got to put dollars into that community,” he said.

Health care is another realm of concern for the Council of Churches.

“We need to continue to raise up and utilize stimulus dollars, and the Legislature needs to get behind that,” he said.

“And the governor needs to get behind various programs that would do that and bring dollars here. That would cost this state very little but give us a great economic impact in health care areas and other areas where those dollars could be used.”

On other issues, the council:

- Prefers that lawmakers find means of raising revenue rather than cutting essential state services.

- Supports the right of workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining.

- Encourages policy that regards all people, regardless of sexual orientation, with “respect, compassion and sensitivity.”

- Opposes any expansion of gambling and asks the Legislature to restrict “highly addictive” video lottery machines.

- Stands firm in its longtime opposition to capital punishment.

- Exhorts the Legislature to protect family cemeteries from the intrusion of logging or mineral extraction with 300-foot buffer zones.

- Supports military families and hopes the Legislature will find money to provide war returnees with adequate health care.

- Advocates rigid enforcement of federal laws so that “the abuses” of strip mining, and mountaintop removal, are prevented.

“In some ways, this session is low-key, but in other ways, it’s a vital session,” Sparks said.

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