Jail just two below max with 380 state inmates filling beds

The Pulaski County jail's Tuesday morning population was two inmates below capacity, Sheriff Doc Holladay told the Quorum Court at its final December meeting Tuesday, but the jail still has more than twice the number of state inmates than he considers ideal.

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The jail had 1,208 inmates, 380 of whom were being held for the state prison system, Holladay said. About 100 to 150 state inmates is a good number for the jail, he said.

"A couple years ago, we were fine with 100 to 150, even 200," Holladay said.

The jail has been reeling from an influx of state inmates since the summer of 2013, when stricter parole policies sent hundreds more people back into the correctional system, many ending up in county jails across the state when the prison system ran out of space.

Because of crowding, the jail has been closed to most nonviolent, nonfelony offenders three different times this year, for more than 100 days total, but it has been "open" since Oct. 6.

Holladay has warned that it will likely close again because of the backlog of state inmates.

The state has housed at least 75 inmates formerly held in the county jail in the jail's work center across the street, which the state is leasing from the county for $1.

That arrangement has reduced the state inmate count in the jail from the 400 to 500 it had been at for nearly a year.

Along with the problem of overcrowding at county jails because of too many state inmates, county officials are seeking more money per-inmate from the state for holding its prisoners. Pulaski County is also renegotiating a 24-year-old contract with its five biggest cities that helps fund the $25.1 million jail operation.

North Little Rock, Sherwood and Maumelle have all signed on to the new five-year contract, but Little Rock and Jacksonville have argued that the payments the county has asked each city to make are inequitable.

On Tuesday, the Little Rock Board of Directors voted to approve the city's 2015 budget, including a nearly $2 million appropriation for the county jail that the contract requires. The city balked at the rate the county asked it to pay for several months, but Mayor Mark Stodola told the board in November that signing the contract for that amount of money and an annual Consumer Price Index adjustment after that was the best option for the city.

Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher did not return a message Tuesday asking about his city's status on the contract. The city now pays $191,000 to help run the jail.

District 15 Justice of the Peace Shane Stacks, R-North Little Rock, told Holladay that negotiations for the next contract should begin as soon as next year to avoid the down-to-the-wire discussion that occurred this year.

"This five-year agreement is going to go quick," he said.

District 12 Justice of the Peace Karilyn Brown, R-Sherwood, expressed doubt that the cities and county would agree to anything in the future without a different approach to negotiations.

"I really feel like somebody else is going to have to come in and resolve this," she said.

Additionally, the state is more than $7 million in arrears to counties that house state inmates, according to the Association of Arkansas Counties.

The association and many other groups across the state say the $28 per day per inmate that the state pays for county jail beds is much lower than the actual cost. The association estimates that the daily cost to jails is $49.35 per state inmate.

Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines warned the Quorum Court, however, not to get too excited about interest shown by state legislators to increase that rate.

"They're going to turn around and say, 'We're paying all this money to the counties -- let's just leave them [the state inmates] there,'" he said.

Holladay said the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association was still planning to lobby in favor of an increase.

"I prefer the beds ... but if we're going to hold them, I want to be paid," Holladay said.

Metro on 12/17/2014

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