(Editorial - Graphic Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

As state officials keep an eye on the unsettling number of deaths occurring in West Virginia’s regional jails — 14 inmate deaths in less than two years at the Southern Regional Jail; and most recently a man who died by an “apparent self-inflicted injury” earlier this month at the South Central Regional Jail — it is difficult to get a handle on the problem while also facing extreme staffing shortages.

Gov. Jim Justice, who says he is still just considering a run for U.S. Senate, is right to want to call back lawmakers to help resolve the issue. Justice believes a bigger pay increase for correctional workers will help fill the gaps.

“We have got to have the flexibility to do some level of stipend or whatever to be able to handle this, unless we want to just have our National Guard in our prisons forever more, but that’s not much of a fix and very expensive on top of that,” Justice said last week.

There are 1,042 vacancies in the state’s correctional system, which consists of 11 prisons, 10 regional jails, 10 juvenile centers and three work-release sites. The vacancy rate is 27% overall, but when looking only at correctional officers, the overall vacancy rate is 33%.

In fact, addressing the staffing shortages will likely go a long way toward addressing the disturbing number of deaths in the regional jails. That is, provided those folks get the training they need and aren’t walking into a culture of apathy and disregard for the rules.

Corrections officials need to get their house in order, and they need to have enough well-trained, good employees to do so. Proper staffing levels will make the job safer for correctional employees, and facilities safer for inmates.

When they are called back to consider the issue, lawmakers must weigh ALL the ways in which the state can alleviate the staffing shortage — money, alone, might not be the answer — and do right by everyone involved.