When Danni Shifflett was released from a long-term recovery facility in 2019, she struggled to find housing assistance because of her arrest history.
But not all of her arrests led to convictions. Arrests that didn’t lead to a conviction have been barriers to finding housing and employment in her experience, she said.
“If I haven’t been convicted of a crime, then why should I still be held accountable for that?†she asked.
She wants the West Virginia Legislature to consider a Clean Slate bill this session that would use technology to automatically expunge charges that never led to a conviction.
Shifflett is a member of the West Virginia Criminal Law Reform Coalition, which held a news conference Monday at the state Capitol to share some criminal justice solutions they hope the legislature will take up. Most members have experience with the criminal justice system in some way.
The West Virginia Criminal Law Reform Coalition held a news conference in the Little Rotunda East of the state Capitol on Monday.
KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail
Test kit decriminalization
Jordan Dennison, who has been in long-term recovery for five years, shared about the importance of decriminalizing drug testing kits, such as xylazine.
In 2022, 95 overdose deaths in West Virginia involved xylazine, up from six in 2019, according to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who cited the Center for Disease Control.
The coalition wants to remove all drug testing kits from the list of drug paraphernalia “so we don’t have to revisit this every time a new drug hits our streets,†Dennison said.
“Unfortunately, there will be something that comes along down the road that’s even worse than xylazine,†he said. “We need to be prepared so we don’t get caught off guard and allow this drug poisoning crisis to get worse.â€
Second-look sentencing
The coalition is also asking the legislature to discuss second-look sentencing — a policy that allows individuals with long sentences to have their sentence re-evaluated.
Kenny Matthews, a formerly incarcerated person and the West Virginia Economic Justice Fellow for the American Friends Service Committee, broke down the potential benefits of the policy.
“Second-look sentencing allows these individuals to be judged on who they are now,†he said.
Second-look sentencing would allow a jail population to decrease, creating a safer environment, more funding for programs and a larger tax base.
Thirteen percent of West Virginia’s jail population is above the age of 70, and some prisons have geriatric and dementia wings, he said.
St. Mary’s Correctional Center & Jail opened a dementia unit in 2019.
Incarcerating individuals over the age of 50 costs over $39 million, Matthews said. If only 10% of those individuals had their sentences reduced, that would be a savings of around $4 million.
Star Hogan is hoping second-look sentencing could help her incarcerated son who was sentenced to 15 years to life when he was 28. He will get a reevaluation at age 43.
Hogan, at an age where she should be saving for retirement she said, is now caring for three of her grandchildren and helping her son buy bottled water due to a water crisis at the facility.
“Second-look could alleviate a lot of that,†she said.
Other issues raised at the news conference were transitional housing, mental health care and voting rights.
The legislative session starts on Jan. 10.
Ashley Perham is a city reporter. She can be reached at 304-348-1240 or aperham@hd
