SB 55 West Virginia Senate · 2026 Regular Session

Establishing criminal offense for obstructing or hindering home incarceration supervisor or social services worker

SB 55 creates a new felony offense for knowingly, willfully, and forcibly obstructing or hindering a home incarceration supervisor or social services worker while they are lawfully performing their duties, if the obstruction causes the death of that professional. It directly affects individuals who obstruct these workers and the workers themselves, who are protected under this law. The key provision sets a mandatory minimum 20-year prison sentence (with no parole eligibility before 20 years) for this offense, replacing a prior 15-year term. This law expands existing protections for public safety personnel to include home incarceration supervisors and social services workers handling cases like abuse investigations or home-based supervision.
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Jan 2026
Senate Passage
Jan 2026
House of Delegates Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 14, 2026 Last action Jan 29, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version Committee Substitute · 4 edits
MODERATE
The bill was amended in committee to strengthen penalties and clarify language for protecting home incarceration supervisors and social services workers. The changes increase the minimum parole eligibility from 15 years to 20 years, add 'social services worker' to the list of protected personnel, and refine the definition of 'social services worker' to include 'or' instead of 'and' in certain contexts.
Scope change
The bill's scope was expanded to explicitly include 'social services worker' in the list of protected individuals alongside 'home incarceration supervisor', and the definition of 'social services worker' was slightly modified to broaden the scope of covered activities.
REQUIREMENT

Increased minimum parole eligibility from 15 years to 20 years for convictions under this section.

SCOPE

Added 'social services worker' to the list of protected personnel in the main statute text.

DEFINITION

Changed 'social service worker' to 'social services worker' in the section title and definition, and modified the definition language to use 'or' instead of 'and' when listing covered activities.

TECHNICAL

Changed 'criminal offense' to 'felony criminal offense' in the bill description for clarity.

Floor votes · Senate Jan 28, 2026

How they voted

311
Passed
Total votes 32
Jan 28, 2026
D Democratic2
1 Yea 1 Nay
50% Nay
R Republican30
30 Yea
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
16
Key actions
2
Committee
4
Jan 29, 2026
Committee
To House Judiciary
lower
Jan 29, 2026
Committee
To Judiciary
lower
Jan 29, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in House
lower
Jan 28, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate (Roll No. 10)
upper
Jan 22, 2026
Upper · Passed
Committee substitute reported
upper
Jan 14, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
Jan 14, 2026
Committee
To Judiciary
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Patricia Rucker
Patricia Rucker
RRepublican
WV
16