W. Va. Code § 17-5-9: Commissioner to pay expenses of convicts and cost of equipment and materials.

The expenses incident to the transportation of convicts and prisoners, their food, clothing, medical attention and maintenance while in the state convict road force shall be paid by the state road commissioner, and all equipment, materials, tools, teams and machinery necessary in the prosecution of the work shall be provided out of any funds at his disposal available for the building, surfacing, paving and completing of the roads upon which such convicts and prisoners labor. And when a convict is discharged at camp the commissioner shall pay him any sum due him and may pay in whole or in part his expenses home.

In any case of a prisoner taken from the penitentiary to a road convict camp the state road commissioner shall pay for the per diem cost of feeding, clothing and caring for such prisoners.