Sheriff cuts jail capacity, patrols

He ties actions to rejected tax

Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery is making good on promises to slash his office’s expenses after the failure of a quarterpercent sales tax measure that would have funded the jail.

Th e ta x would have raised $1. 5 million a year and helped bail out the jail,which has a $140,000 annual deficit. But voters turned down the proposal 10,916 to 7,917.

Now, Montgomery has removed 58 of the jail’s 102 beds to shrink its inmate capacity and cut costs.

He also plans to ground his department’s searchand-rescue helicopter, eliminate his boating-safety team, remove a resource officer from the Mountain Home School District in May and reduce the nightly maximum of miles his deputies can patrol.

The jail, with an annual budget of $700,000, has been operating at a deficit of between $137,000 and $140,000 for each of the past three years. The tax proposal was a “last-ditch effort,” Montgomery said.

“It became clear to me that I have to cut $140,000 next year,” the sheriff said. “I can’t just snap my fingers and do it.

“The only way to cut money is to cut the number of inmates we have and to cut services.”

Baxter County Judge Joe Bodenhamer calls Montgomery’s actions “excessive” and said there are other solutions available.

“It’s overkill,” said Bodenhamer, whose term as county judge ends in January. “It’s too drastic. We need to figure out some other way to do this.

“All county budgets are tight,” Bodenhamer said. “Sure, the jail is important, but people want good roads and other services, too. We don’t just go cutting things out in other departments like that.

“We could have done a lot of things differently.”

Last week, workers began removing beds from four inmate units in the jail. Several were bunk beds and had to be cut with metal torches. A day later, workers finished repainting the walls in the units.

The Baxter County jail has averaged about 70 prisoners a day. The jail now has the capacity to house 33 male prisoners and 11 female prisoners.

State statutes require jails to take inmates until they reach capacity. By cutting the number of beds, Montgomery said, he has cut his jail’s capacity.

As a result, Montgomery will release some nonviolent misdemeanor offenders to make room for felony inmates.

His plan has concerned justices of the peace.

“I can say we have a low crime rate in our area,” said Baxter County Quorum Court member Leon Alexander of Norfork. “But the problem is, if we don’t incarcerate some of the repeat offenders, we will probably see more crime.

“This is a severe action he’s having to take,” Alexander said.

Quorum Court members discussed raising property millages to help fund the county but decided not to. Baxter County’s generalfund received 0.8 mill - the third-lowest millage rate in the state, Bodenhamer said.

“A millage increase is not an issue,” Alexander said. “We’ve had two other tax initiatives in the past both soundly defeated. The consensus here is for no more taxes.”

Justice of the Peace David Lemoine of Mountain Home said he wouldn’t favor a millage increase without an election - and its success would be unlikely.

“Passing a tax in Baxter County is like trying to convince a child to eat artichokes,” he said. “It’s not going to happen.”

The Baxter County jail opened in 2004, a year before Montgomery was elected to his first term as sheriff.The county paid for the jail’s construction with proceeds from the sale of the countyowned hospital in Mountain Home.

However, Montgomery said, past county officials failed to make provisions for paying for the jail’s operations, its upkeep and rising costs over the years.

It’s an economic problem several counties are facing, said Ronnie Baldwin, the director of the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association.

“Sheriffs are obligated to take care of the jails,” said Baldwin, a former Cross County sheriff. “But costs keep going up. Housing costs, medicine, food, utilities, medical costs. Everything that it takes to provide what’s required costs more, but counties are doing it with less money.”

He said it’s an endless cycle. When county’s face economic hardships, theyare forced to cut back. But because of the same economic hardships, crime increases and jails fill with more inmates.

“It’s a problem across the state,” Baldwin said.

Newton County voters approved a 0.5 percent sales tax in 2008 to be collectedover three years to fund construction of a new jail. The same voters, however, defeated a second sales tax issue that would have paid for the new jail’s operation.

Now, the Newton County jail sits empty. Newton County Sheriff Keith Slape houses prisoners in neighboring Boone County at a cost of $35 a day, Baldwin said.

“It’s a constant struggle,” Baldwin said. “You try and take care of taxpayers’ money, but it’s a nightmare.

“[Montgomery] is taking measures to do what he has to in order to fix the problem,” he said.

In addition to the removal of the 58 beds, which will save about $50,000 in inmate expenses a year, Montgomery will limit his deputies to driving 75 miles per shift - down from the previous 250 miles they drove nightly - to save fuel and automotive expenses. He will also eliminate routine drive-by checks of county businesses.

He met with jail employees Thursday to discuss changes.

One employee suggested, half-jokingly, placing a “no vacancy” sign outside the jail.

“I’m not doing this to get your attention,” Montgomery said. “This is what I said would happen.”

Alexander said it will take Quorum Court members a lot of “patience and a lot of thought” in figuring out how to solve the jail’s economic woes with all new personnel.

Along with a new county judge, voters elected a new county clerk, a new treasurer, a new assessor and five new members to the 11-member Quorum Court.

“He’s been saying he would have to do things like this for quite some time during the campaign,” Alexander said. “But I’m not sure people were listening then.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 17 on 12/16/2012

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