There is a disturbing trend that is unfolding in our state. The bad news about our child welfare systems and the hits to treatment facilities just keep coming. One after one, many of our state-owned facilities have been sold to private firms and many private facilities that have taken in our most vulnerable populations have also shuttered in the past year. Most of these sales took place without any heads-up given to the Legislature at all—we were caught just as off guard as everyone else! Some of the facility closures were a direct decision of our state government, some have closed due to a lack of grants from the federal government or a lack of local financial support.
With the closure of Pinehaven–Southern West Virginia’s only homeless shelter–earlier this year, the announcement that Jackie Withrow Hospital was being sold, the future of FMRS (and roughly 300 jobs) in doubt because of that sale, continued crises in our state CPS and foster care system, and a total lack of healthcare and psychiatric care facilities for the children who are in state custody, it is absolutely clear that we are failing the most vulnerable people in our state. Our children are not being given adequate treatment as close to home as possible, and our homeless population has nowhere to go but the streets.
We want economic development, jobs, and business growth! People living on the streets of our towns and cities are not going to help us make the case and sell the idea of West Virginia to businesses. Foster kids living in hotels and alarmingly bad news about how we treat our children will not help us sell the idea of West Virginia. Our inability to provide basic care for vulnerable people in our state has reached a truly alarming point, and it is a point at which I can no longer be silent or wait for others to act. I have a vote, and I have letterhead. I am going to start using them. The men and women that I serve with truly care about the children of this state; we have to start doing better. Nothing else should come before our children.
It costs West Virginia exponentially more money to send one of our children who are in state custody out of state for treatment than it does for us to treat them here in West Virginia, but now with the announced closure of Barboursville School, the only remaining facility in the entire state that takes children with psychiatric conditions long-term, we have reached the reality where our inability or unwillingness to fund programs for our kids in need has now become fiscally and morally irresponsible. We are spending more taxpayer money sending children out of state for treatment than we would if we funded treatment centers right here in West Virginia! This is unacceptable! The state of West Virginia spent over $77 million sending our kids out of state for education or treatment. Our children deserve better, and the people who fund our government (the taxpayers) deserve better too.
When God asked Cain the whereabouts of his brother Abel, what did Cain say in reply? “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Well, we are our brother’s keeper. That is what our faith teaches us. That is the Christian way—we are our brother’s keeper. We have a responsibility to the people who are in mental health crises and to the most vulnerable children in our state to fund programs and facilities that meet their needs. We are failing. We are not even providing the most basic services at this point—there are no options left for these people. None. Everything in our entire geographical area of the state is now closed or will be closed by the beginning of next year. There is literally nothing left.
My promise to my constituents and to every person who reads this opinion piece is that I will not vote for another tax cut, spending package, or budget until our state government has a legitimate and fully detailed plan laid out in a proposed budget to address the inadequacies that we have created in our state child welfare systems. When we decide that we have the money to fund mental healthcare for our foster kids and the facilities to provide it, I will vote “yes”. I will gladly vote for tax cuts or economic development projects once our children are taken care of. They come first. Until then, I am going to vote “no” every single time. I am only one vote out of 134, but I will use my voice and my vote how I can. I truly hope that the rest of our elected officials begin to feel the real sense of urgency that needs to take place. We must take care of our children.
Mark 9:36-37
“And he took a little child, and set him in the midst of them: and taking him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.”
Delegate David “Elliott” Pritt (R)
Fayette County/District 50
Assistant Majority Leader
