How We See It: Jailing Error Reflects Need for Improvement

In the nearly 240 years since the American Revolution, one could argue Americans have gotten a little spoiled.

The people of the 13 colonies had to fight to preserve every bit of liberty they had come to appreciate in the new world. Having defeated a king eager to deprive the new nation of its expansive concept of freedom, early Americans had a deep understanding of how an unbridled government can be a threat to it.

Today, in comparison, a national crisis centers on whether a comedic motion picture will hit theaters in time for Christmas.

The point is, maybe our love for freedom has been stunted by the fact most of us have never really faced a possible future without it. Even today, however, depriving a man of freedom without due process of law must be viewed as a serious break with American values.

Which brings us to the Benton County Jail, where men and women work every day to help protect the community from law-breakers and to safely hold those accused of crimes until a judicial process determines guilt or innocence. Theirs is a largely thankless job -- just look at how much most are paid -- but a vital and important one. Jailers are given the heavy responsibility of ensuring they have proper authority to keep each man and woman they hold.

If wrongly depriving a man of liberty runs contrary to American values, however, we must express disappointment and, indeed, disgrace at the Benton County jail's imprisonment of Angel Alvarado-Villalobos, a 40-year-old man jailers kept in jail for nearly a year without legal authority.

Alvarado-Villalobos was legitimately jailed March 16, 2013, to face a driving while intoxicated case in Bentonville District Court. He had been transferred from Washington County by a Cave Springs police officer who basically did Benton County a favor by picking Alvarado-Villalobos up from the Washington County jail. In the rather lackadaisical communication about charges, a Washington County deputy told the officer a "hold" for the U.S. Marshals Service needed to be on Alvarado-Villalobos' record. That information was communicated to the Benton County jail, but it was incorrect. In May 2013, when a judge gave Alvarado-Villalobos a sentence of time served for the DWI, he should have been freed. Instead, the marshal's hold kept him in jail -- 354 days longer than he should have been.

Jailers, naturally, get used to the idea of depriving people of liberty. That's what they do, and we appreciate it. But what happened to Alvarado-Villalobos reflects a system that lacked the checks and balances necessary to ensure freedom comes when it is due and, vice versa, not before it is due.

This was not a mistake entirely of the Benton County jail's making, but the agency is the party responsible for ensuring the men and women confined there are held under property authority. That nobody -- man or machine -- flagged an inmate who didn't belong there is a serious shortcoming. The county paid Alvarado-Villalobos $100,000 to quietly disappear and forgo a lawsuit, no doubt because county officials realize that. That was a wise liability-limiting payment. But the county and its residents are protected best by making system improvements that do not let inmates fall through the cracks. Sheriff Kelley Cradduck says changes have been made, but declined to share those.

We hope those steps are adequate to ensure the jail adheres to the values represented by the U.S. flag flying proudly outside the sheriff's office.