West Virginia’s most dangerous convicts should be incarcerated at the maximum security prison at Mount Olive, in Fayette County. Yet 65 murderers and nearly twice as many inmates convicted of violent sex offenses are housed in regional jails.

State prisons are overcrowded to the point many convicts who should be in them are being kept in regional jails, instead. Legislators were told Monday the jails are holding 481 inmates who would be in prisons if space was available for them.

Among that number are 65 people convicted of homicides and 124 guilty of violent sex offenses. Acting regional jail chief Joe DeLong told lawmakers what must have been obvious to them already, that the large number of violent prisoners in regional jails is making those facilities more dangerous.

In response, some legislators suggested the state should have a policy making it a priority to get violent felons into prisons as soon as possible.

That is simple common sense. If there are policies preventing state officials from taking violent offenders straight to Mount Olive, they should be amended immediately. If that means shifting some prisoners convicted of non-violent offenses out of the prison and into regional jails, which should be done.

No matter how badly overcrowded the corrections system in general is, keeping the most dangerous offenders in the most secure prison should be the rule.

— Distributed by The Associated Press