Officials in the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office are reviewing the department's quality control measures after a home confinement officer admitted to accepting money in exchange for not reporting a person's home confinement violations.
In addition to the daily systematic checks they complete, officials have been reviewing department policies since it became known that former home confinement officer Jacques Vance had accepted a bribe from Robert Henry Hebert Jr., this summer, Sgt. Brian Humphreys, spokesman for the department, said Wednesday.
Humphreys said officials are working to prevent such an incident from happening again.
"The supervisors in the home confinement unit do a daily review of the logs of people who are on home confinement," Humphreys said. "They review the case files of people to see if there are any potential violations, and they check to see what the managing officers have done to address those issues."
Humphreys said a new facet of the review will seek ways to better identify if an officer is being outright dishonest in their reporting.
There are, on average, about 110 people serving home confinement in Kanawha County with seven officers in the sheriff's office to monitor them, Humphreys said Wednesday.
He said supervisors on a daily basis review random case files for each officer. They also follow-up on any anomalies with the GPS-tracking home confinement bracelets.
On Monday, Jacques Vance, a former home confinement officer in Kanawha County, pleaded guilty to one felony count of bribery in official and political matters.
According to the information filed in the case, Vance accepted $4,000 from Hebert in exchange for not reporting home confinement violations.
Humphreys said officials became aware of the situation when someone contacted the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney's office. Vance was fired this summer following an investigation into the matter.
Vance faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 31.
Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Miller said Tuesday he doesn't intend to press charges against Hebert. It would be up to the judge handling Hebert's case to rule on what to do in response of Hebert's home confinement violation, Miller said.
Reach Lacie Pierson at lacie.pierson@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @laciepierson on Twitter.