Cardinal Direction
What's really happening in the Mountain State? Cardinal Direction brings you in-depth conversations on the policies affecting West Virginia, from the economy and education to healthcare and infrastructure. Produced by the Cardinal Institute for WV Policy.
Cardinal Direction
The Conservative Case for Criminal Justice Reform
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Host Jessica Dobrinsky sits down with Beverly Sharpe, a former federal prison officer and administrator who spent 30 years inside the corrections system before turning her experience toward reentry and reform through West Virginia’s REACH Initiative. Together, they explore what happens after the sentence ends, when people returning home face hundreds of “collateral consequences” that block housing, work, education, and even basic stability, often setting them up to fail before they’ve had a chance to start over.
Sharpe explains how REACH operates like a “triage nurse” for reentry: meeting people where they are, mobilizing a statewide network of reentry councils and community partners, and cutting through red tape to solve urgent needs in real time. The conversation also digs into the school-to-prison and foster-care-to-prison pipelines, the role employers and the faith community can play in restoring dignity, and why second chances are not soft on accountability—they’re essential to safer, stronger communities.