Around West Virginia today features stories on correctional officers training, sex workers, a murder sentencing and human trafficking education. Please send stories you're impressed by to erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com.
n The Journal public safety reporter Henry Culvyhouse spent the day in Glenville earlier this month for a media event on correctional officer training in West Virginia. Correctional officers learn to handle conflict by role playing, guard themselves against shanks with "shock knives" that emit electric charges and "rarely" carry guns, according to the newspaper. Culvyhouse also notes that in 2014, the Division of Corrections reported a 37 percent turnover rate.
n The Cabell County drug court will add 20 spots specifically for sex workers struggling with addiction next month, The Herald-Dispatch reports. The program, which will also be re-named the Cabell-Huntington Drug Court, involves matching sex workers up with treatment instead of sending them to jail. The newspaper reports that sex work has increased in Cabell County since heroin use became a more serious problem.
n A Hampshire County woman was sentenced Monday to life in prison for stabbing her husband to death and dumping his body in a river in September of 2013, according to MetroNews. Mandy O'Hara was also sentenced to one to five years for each of three counts of conspiracy, one to five years for concealment of a body, and one to 15 years for burglary. John Shoemaker III pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the death in June, according to the Hampshire Review.
n Several state Supreme Court officials, including West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Margaret Workman, Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Joanna Tabit, Administrative Director Steve Canterbury and Supreme Court Director of Children's Services Nikki Tennis studied human trafficking and state courts at a national summit in New York City earlier this month, The State Journal reports. They were planning to develop concrete steps to address the issue once home. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed a bill that would have created a commission on human trafficking, based on technical issues, after the last legislative session.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.