West Virginia State Conference of the NAACP Seeks to Compel Juvenile Justice Data from State Agencies
Kanawha County, West Virginia – A circuit court in West Virginia held a hearing today in a case that seeks to remedy state agencies’ failure to collect data as required by West Virginia law to improve the justice system for children and youth in the state. The suit is West Virginia State Conference of the NAACP v. West Virginia Department of Homeland Security, West Virginia Department of Human Services, & West Virginia Department of Education. West Virginia NAACP is represented by Democracy Forward and Mountain State Justice.
Every year in West Virginia, around 4,000 juveniles appear before a judge for alleged offenses such as missing too many days of school or running away from a foster home. Many of these kids become entangled in West Virginia’s juvenile justice system for years. Just a decade ago, West Virginia children were confined at the highest rate in the nation: 330 of every 100,000 children – well above the national average of 152. There are additionally vast racial inequities for children who are dealing with other justice issues in the state, which are growing rapidly and demand attention.
In response to this crisis, then-Governor Earl Ray Tomblin convened a task force to reform the state’s juvenile justice system. That task force made a series of recommendations, some of which turned into SB393. The popular bipartisan bill, signed into law in 2015, prioritized community-based services and diversion programs as an alternative to incarceration. SB393 includes requirements for state agencies to collect data about juvenile justice outcomes in West Virginia to help policymakers ensure reforms are data-driven and based on evidence.
West Virginia state agencies, however, have not been collecting the juvenile justice data as required by law, making it harder to know if the state’s efforts to address its crisis of incarcerated youth is working as intended. On August 15, 2024, the West Virginia State Conference of the NAACP filed a lawsuit to compel state agencies to establish procedures to collect the data as required by law.
In today’s hearing, the Court scheduled an additional status hearing for February 6, 2025, and directed the parties to meet multiple times before that date to address the data collection at issue in this lawsuit. The West Virginia State Conference of the NAACP was represented by Mountain State Justice Senior Attorney and Deputy Director Lydia Milnes and Democracy Forward Senior Counsel Jessica Morton who released the following statements regarding today’s hearing:
Statement of Jessica Morton, Senior Counsel for Democracy Forward
“West Virginians deserve to have a government that fulfills its obligations–to know that when the state legislature passes a law near-unanimously and the governor signs it, the state agencies follow that law, just the same as all West Virginians do.
“The data in question will help quantify important issues, and is essential to ensuring the crisis of incarcerated youth in West Virginia is being adequately addressed, especially in regard to the racial disparities in the system. We are dismayed to see that the agencies are putting more energy into resisting their legal obligations than complying with them. By failing to collect data on the relative effectiveness of different programs, the agencies are delaying important progress needed to address racial disparities in West Virginia’s juvenile legal system.”
Statement of Lydia Milnes, Senior Attorney and Deputy Director, Mountain State Justice
“We look forward to working collaboratively with the agencies to develop a system to collect this essential information that our client needs to advocate for West Virginia’s youth.”
For more information, please visit https://democracyforward.org/work/justice-advocates-demand-west-virginia-collect-juvenile-justice-data-as-required-by-bipartisan-reform-law/ and www.democracyforward.org.
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