Cells latest addition to jail’s construction

Newton County targets July finish

Jake Butler (left) and Skip Laffollette, with Davis Construction of Harrison, move the first of 10 prefabricated cells into the Newton County jail, which is expected to be complete at the end of July. The county has been without a jail since July 2009, when its 100-year-old jail was closed for failing to meet state standards.
Jake Butler (left) and Skip Laffollette, with Davis Construction of Harrison, move the first of 10 prefabricated cells into the Newton County jail, which is expected to be complete at the end of July. The county has been without a jail since July 2009, when its 100-year-old jail was closed for failing to meet state standards.

— Newton County Sheriff Keith Slape didn’t try to contain his excitement as he watched his new jail cells arrive in the parking lot on a flatbed tractor-trailer.

“It’s just like Christmas,” Slape said, waiting to unwrap the prefabricated metal cells being installed this week in his new jail.

Slape leapt onto the trailer to help trucker Richard Peoples remove two tarps that covered four steel cells. Ten cells in total, which will house felons, were built by Sweeper Metal Fabricators Corp. in Drumright, Okla., and delivered in several trips to downtown Jasperlast week.

Newton County has been without a jail since July 1, 2009, when Slape was forced to close the old one, in use since 1904.

The old jail was ruled unsafe by the Arkansas Criminal Detention Facility Review Committee, after two inmates committed suicide there in 2008. County voters in November 2008 approved a one-half percent sales tax to build a new jail, with the expectation that the jail would be constructed near the fairgrounds on Arkansas 7 south of town.

Slape has said it wasn’t until just before bids were about to be let that officialslearned the site couldn’t support a septic sewer system. A sewer connection would have been too costly, so county officials began looking at alternatives. They eventually decided to convert a metal building across the parking lot from Slape’s office into the new jail.

Davis Construction of Harrison was awarded the contract and is on track to finish the jail in July, ahead of schedule, said David Brantley, project manager.

Brantley said he expected to have the cells installed by the end of last week. He said each cell has a steel tube frame, steel walls and weighs 4,800 pounds.

The cells’ interiors are powder-coated and have two steel bunks, a toilet, sink and overhead light, Brantley said. He said once the cells are in place, James Frazier with Sweepers will level them, then weld the cells to the floor and one another.

Brantley said the cost of the prefabricated cells isn’t much different than what it would be to build them out of concrete block, but they will last longer and save construction time. He said it took the company nine weeks to build the cells, which had to be approved by the executive director of the Arkansas Criminal Detention Facility Review Committee because this is their first use in the state.

Slape said one of the steel cells is built to Americans With Disabilities Act standards, while the remainder are intended to house only able-bodied felony suspects. He said the two misdemeanor cells are built from concrete block, as are the holding cells, visitors cells, kitchen, hallways and command room.

A galvanized metal roof is being installed for all but the public spaces at the new jail, Slape said. He said the metal roof will be topped with a 4-inch concrete slab, which will provide security for cells and act as a floor for the upper level.

Slape said the upper level will have a laundry and housing for the eight inmates assigned to the county under Act 309 of 1983. These inmatesare similar to jail trusties in that they are assigned to do various jobs for the county, which receives $15 a day from the Arkansas Department of Correction for each “309” inmate held.

Deputy John Griffith, who also serves as jail administrator, said the jail will double the number of prisoners the county can hold.

Griffith said the new jail will house 32, while the old jail housed 16, though it was designed to hold about 12.

Slape said the county has about twice as many active warrants as it did when the old jail closed, up from about 220 to about 500. He said once the new jail is open, he’ll be able to stop sending his prisoners north to the Boone County jail.

One issue yet to be resolved, however, is how to fund jail operations, Slape said. He said voters approved the tax to build the jail, but not the half-percent tax to run it.

Slape said the jail will cost about $320,000 a year to operate. He said he will use some of the savings from sending prisoners out of the county, but didn’t know how much it will be.

Dispatch and jailing costs right now total about $117,000, more than half of which goes to housing prisoners in other facilities, Slape said. He said he will be able to apply more of that money to the jail, once the county starts receivingpayments from the state for providing wireless 911.

Slape said the county recently established the wireless 911, which means calls placed on wireless phones show up as a location on a computer screen inside the sheriff’s office. He said mobile phone users pay a 911 fee on their bills, which the state remits to the county.

There are a few items Slape plans to add when he can find the money, such as a sally port - or secure drive-in entry - and video equipment for visits.

Slape said he’d hope to be able to apply about $38,000 from the U.S. Forest Service under the Secure Rural Schools and Self-Determination Act, but the state failed to submit forms in time so the county didn’t get the money.

Arkansas’ congressional delegation has been trying to get an appropriation included into the federal surface transportation bill, but so far that hasn’t happened. It was included in a Senate bill supported by Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., but that bill wasn’t approved by the House.

Rep. Steve Womack, RArk., has asked to see the funding restored to Newton County and the 13 other Arkansas counties that didn’t get full allocations, said J.R. Davis, Womack’s spokesman.

To contact this reporter:

[email protected]

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/16/2012

Upcoming Events