W. Va. Code § 17-5-8
It shall be the duty of the state road commissioner, with the assistance of the warden, to organize the penitentiary convicts in the state road force, as far as practicable, into groups or classes according to the similarity of their respective dispositions, temperaments, criminal inclinations, regard for orderly observance of the rules and general habits respecting stability or safety, and, as far as practicable, to place those so classified in separate camps, and particularly to employ or use in one camp, or class of camps, those youths and first offenders whose correction, improvement and reclamation may reasonably be anticipated and whose habits are not dangerous to their fellow convicts, and for the purpose of effecting such classifications prisoners may be removed from one camp to another. All classes of prisoners on the state convict road force shall be employed and used under such safeguards and in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be provided by the road commissioner, the warden and the governor.
W. Va. Code § 17-5-8