The Jail System
West Virginia has 11 jails in 55 counties. The jail population in 2022 was 4,901.
The Prison System
As of December 31, 2022, the number of prisoners under the jurisdiction of West Virginia correctional authorities was 5,873 located in 11 state prisons and held in custody of private prisons or local jails. State operated facilities had a staff of 3,760 employees and a budget of $223,832,716.
The Community Corrections System
As of December 31, 2022, West Virginia community corrections population was 6,100 under probation and 4,030 under parole.
Methodology
The National Institute of Corrections depends on publicly available information to provide the information on this page.
The statistics for budgets, employee positions, county numbers, and state prison facilities data come from state departments of corrections, other state reports and state agencies. If data is missing for a state, then we were unable to find that information.
The data on prison population and incarcerate rate come from the Prisoners in 2022 report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The report includes the count of prisoners in the unified systems of Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Violent and property crime rates are provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
The number of counties per state comes from the United States Census Bureau.
- Census of Jails, 2005–2019 – Statistical Tables
- County Population Totals and Components of Change: 2020-2023
- Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer
- How much do states spend on prisoners?
- Prisoners in 2022 – Statistical Tables
- Probation and Parole in the United States, 2022
- VERA Incarceration Trends: West Virginia
- West Virginia Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation Annual Report 2022