By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Senate passed a bill Monday that would help devise ways to divert people with intellectual and developmental disabilities away from prisons and state hospitals.
The state Senate voted 33-0 to pass Senate Bill 232, creating a study group to make recommendations regarding diversion of persons with disabilities from the criminal justice system. The bill now heads to the House of Delegates.
SB 232 would create a multi-disciplinary study group to make recommendations regarding the diversion of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the state’s prisons, jails, and court-ordered placement in the state’s psychiatric hospitals.
The study group would develop placement recommendations for inmates and persons with IDD. The bill also requires development of a plan to coordinate care, treatment, and placement for persons with IDD in the criminal justice system and in the community…
