MORGANTOWN – With jail bill costs estimated to end up $1 million over budget in the current fiscal year, and a 31% increase in the daily rate charged to counties to house each individual in the state’s regional jails looming July 1, the Monongalia County Commission is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to get its ballooning jail bill under control.
On Wednesday, the body announced it was temporarily suspending its opioid grant program, financed through the county’s local share of the state’s nearly $1 billion opioid settlement. Under the state’s guidelines, up to half of a county’s direct allocation can be used to cover jail costs.
It was explained the move is simply meant to give the county added flexibility, if needed.
The commission also approved allocating an additional $175,000 for the prosecuting attorney’s budget through the next fiscal year aimed at adding two assistant prosecuting attorneys and a full-time administrative assistant to the prosecutor’s staff.
Jail bill aside, Prosecutor Gabrielle Mucciola recently told the commission that the caseload being carried by her office was not sustainable, explaining the office’s six felony prosecutors took on 645 new felony cases in 2025, while each misdemeanor prosecutor was looking at closer to 1,000 cases annually.
She said 2026 was going to surpass those numbers.
“This is not reasonable and cannot continue,” she said during an April 29 work session. “This is not a temporary surge or an isolated burden. The numbers speak to the structural imbalance occurring here in Monongalia County. Expecting attorneys to consistently sustain workloads at this level is neither reasonable nor sustainable. It places the effectiveness and stability of this office at risk.”
The commission agreed the additional staff was needed, and now hopes the added investment will more than pay for itself in terms of reducing the number of days individuals charged with felonies spend sitting in jail on the county’s dime awaiting trial.
“I think the county commission recognizes that the jail bill is for misdemeanor crimes and folks that are incarcerated pre-trial. So, the sooner that we’re able to resolve these felony matters, the sooner those incarcerations will go over onto the prison bill, and it will not be a Monongalia County Commission cost,” Mucciola said Wednesday.
Beyond the prosecutor’s office, it’s looking increasingly likely that the county intends to dramatically alter the agreements it has in place with Morgantown, Star City, Granville, Westover and WVU spelling out how, and how much, each is charged to transport arrestees to the North Central Regional Jail.
Under the existing transport agreements, each is charged $35 if a trip includes an arrestee brought in by their respective police departments. The charge is not per person. If there’s more than one arrestee from a given jurisdiction taking the ride, it’s still $35.
Under a previously discussed proposal, that charge would go from $35 per trip to as much as $160 or more per person transported. Additionally, a new fee is being considered that would charge the municipalities and WVU for people who are dropped off at the sheriff’s department but are bonded out before being transported to the Doddridge County facility.
While transportation costs are separate from the county’s jail bill, it was explained that a portion of the increased transport fee would cover the first day of the state’s per-diem charge to the county to hold those individuals in jail.
As for the actual jail bill, this change would be a drop in the bucket – a few hundred days out of the tens of thousands charged to the county each year.
But, as Commissioner Sean Sikora said, “We’re looking at everything.”
“We want to clarify that nothing we’re doing is meant to criticize the judicial process, due process, sentencing guidelines or anything like that. That’s not the intent, to stop sending people to jail. That’s not what we’re after. What we’re trying to do is make the wheels of justice work smoother. The first thing we need to do is stabilize the problem … If we don’t do something to stabilize these costs, this problem is going to continue.”
In a work session following the commission’s regular meeting, Sheriff Todd Forbes said the increased focus on jail costs has already brought several issues to light
By way of example, Forbes said he believes as many as 37 long-term detainees have been released in the last week following case reviews.
“There’s a lot of problems. We’re not pointing fingers because we were some of the problem, but we have found a lot of problems, and I think we’re moving in the direction where there’s going to be a very noticeable difference in that jail bill,” he said.
