Photo by Brett Dunlap Officials attended a ceremonial ribbon cutting Thursday at the Wood County Justice Center to signify the turnover of the Wood County Holding Center to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Pictured are Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Commissioner Betsy Jividen, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Deputy Commissioner Mike Coleman, Bureau of Juvenile Services Assistant Commissioner William Marshall and Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Deputy Commissioner Paul Simmons.

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Holding Center was officially turned over to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation in a ceremony Thursday at the Wood County Justice Center.

Gov. Jim Justice and local and state officials attended the ceremony, including Secretary Jeff Sandy of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, a former Wood County sheriff.

Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Commissioner Betsy Jividen said the move is part of a process that started with a bill passed by the Legislature allowing for the modernization and streamlining corrections services.

“We can make greater progress toward fulfilling our overriding mission of protecting public safety and take part in law and order in our community,” she said.

The Holding Center will operate around the clock under the Division of Corrections. The move will reduce transports back and forth to the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County by law enforcement.

Photo by Brett Dunlap Gov. Jim Justice spoke Thursday at the Wood County Justice Center at a ceremony marking the turnover of the Wood County Holding Center to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Officials said the move will reduce the time local officers will be on the road transporting prisoners.

“What this holding center will accomplish is now when an offender is arrested, instead of having to transport them to the closest regional jail, the arresting agency will now have the option of transporting the offender to this location where they can be received, processed and booked exactly the same as if they were in a regional jail,” Jividen said. “That will allow your community police officers to stay on the streets, protecting law and order, doing their jobs and not spending hours in their vehicles driving back and forth to the Regional Jail.”

As part of the ceremony, the five officers employed at the Center were presented with their new badges with the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Sandy spoke about how Justice told him he wanted to run the state like a business.

“Right off the bat, we started looking at corrections,” he said.

A number of places could be consolidated and streamlined to be more efficient.

Photo by Brett Dunlap Gov. Jim Justice spoke Thursday at the Wood County Justice Center at a ceremony marking the turnover of the Wood County Holding Center to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Officials said the move will reduce the time local officers will be on the road transporting prisoners.

“It is stronger to protect the citizens of West Virginia,” Sandy said.

He talked about the different law enforcement agencies in the state, some with limited manpower, who had to have people regularly transporting prisoners to the Regional Jail. Some had to dedicate someone to driving an hour or so to transport prisoners to the Regional Jail. Others had to transport prisoners along bad roads. Now with facilities closer to them in Pleasants, Wood County and elsewhere, many law enforcement agencies don’t have to travel nearly as long.

Agencies in Wood County now can drop a prisoner off at the Holding Center and be back on the road attending to their regular duties.

“These men and women can immediately turn around and get back on the road to protect the citizens of the Mid-Ohio Valley,” Sandy said.

Before it would take around 45 minutes to transport a prisoner to the regional jail, officials said.

Photo by Brett Dunlap Gov. Jim Justice spoke Thursday at the Wood County Justice Center at a ceremony officially handing over control of the Wood County Holding Center to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Justice said the move was guided by common sense to improve services and help local law-enforcement.

Prisoners can also be kept at the facility for a day or so if trial has to be delayed due to weather, cutting down on other costs.

Wood County Commission President Blair Couch said doing this will save the county around $600,000 in the first year.

“It will save us on our jail bill in the long run,” he said.

It would also allow more time for some defendants to bond out before having to be sent to the regional jail, trying to bond out from there and the county being charged for housing them, he said.

“That is a huge benefit to the people of Wood County,” Couch said.

Photo by Brett Dunlap Jeff Sandy, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and a former Wood County sheriff, spoke Thursday at a ceremony officially handing over control of the Wood County Holding Center to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Justice talked about the efforts of a lot of people to bring this together. He talked about how law-enforcement needed the resources to do what they do and how leaders and lawmakers came together to make it happen.

“I get it,” the governor said. “We made the right decision and we are moving forward. At the end of the day, all we have done here is what common sense would have led us to do.”