West Virginia Regional Jail Authority
Executive Director Joe DeLong, who announced his resignation Monday, says he’ll
spend the next two months on the job advocating for regional jail workers.
“My primary focus at this time is not
about what happens on April 1. My primary focus at this time is doing the job I
was paid to do up through March 31 and delivering on the promise I made to my
employees during that time,” DeLong said.
The three-year director said he’s
frustrated with lip service regional jail workers have been given about pay
raises and other employment enhancements. DeLong said he can better talk about
those needs knowing that he’ll no longer be the director in less than two
months.
“I think this gives me the ability to
say this is my fight and my fight alone,” DeLong said. “We can’t continue to
make this a low priority. The people who work in these agencies have to become
a high priority and have to realize they are a high priority and I just haven’t
seen at this point in time that they are.”
DeLong said he’s long told correctional
workers that if they would buy in to the changes made in recent years there
would be a better chance that things would improve including pay and
opportunities for advancement in the system.
“I owe it to those folks now to fight
that fight and it’s just become evident to me that the best way is that I can
fight that fight for those correctional officers, unencumbered, is to fight it
as I’m heading out the door,” DeLong said.
One thing DeLong wants to see done is
the removal of the regional jail workers from the Civil Service system, a move
that was made by sate lawmakers in 2008, when DeLong was in the legislature. He
said the designation currently hurts the workers. He said they have to apply
for jobs they really don’t want in the system in order to advance in pay.
DeLong said the people hired to fill the vacated position can then be paid
more. He said it’s nonsensical.
DeLong added he’s also frustrated that
the Regional Jail system gets lumped in with the state Division of Corrections
when they are two different systems and should be treated as such.
DeLong said he can more freely speak
out about the needs as he leaves the position.
“I’m doing it because I believe in may
heart it’s the right thing to do. Legislators need to understand it’s time to
stop giving lip service to these things. It’s time to stop increasing
correctional budgets through general revenue without giving anything to the
staffs,” he said.
Accomplishments cited in DeLong’s three years on the job include
a reduction in the daily fee counties pay for inmates; a 34 percent drop in
mandatory overtime for jail correctional officers; a 44 percent drop in
lawsuits filed against the Regional Jail Authority since 2011and improvements
in the authority’s financial office.
