FAYETTEVILLE — It was 9 p.m. one Friday in December, and an inmate at the Washington County jail was cornered by two other men in his cell. Until 1 p.m. the next day, the pair beat, tortured and raped the inmate while a fourth watched, doing so off-and-on to avoid detection, investigators say. All four had been in altercations with other inmates or officers and were already segregated from most others. But there wasn’t enough room to separate them from each other, Sheriff Tim Helder said last week.

“We find ourselves in a crisis situation,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of dividing them up now.”

Arkansas’ persistent inability to house thousands of state prisoners has filled the Washington County Detention Center to near capacity, making it more dangerous and straining resources, officials said last week.

Violent incidents between inmates or against officers quadrupled in 2013, jumping from less than three per month for the first half of the year to almost 11 per month in the second half. Meanwhile, food and medical bills pushed spending perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars above the allotted $13 million.

Final budget numbers aren’t yet ready.

The jail has more than 600 men and women because the flow of prisoners to state prisons has effectively stagnated. Cell blocks with 32 beds hold 40 men or more, with the extra people sleeping on mats on the floor.

The Arkansas Department of Correction doesn’t have the money or room to hold 2,800 of its own prisoners, only the latest in a string of record highs. The system is at 107 percent capacity, spokeswoman Shea Wilson said. County jails share the burden.

“The sheriffs are still just searching for answers and we’re trying everything we can think of,” said Ronnie Baldwin, executive director of the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association. “Right now this thing is just in gridlock and nobody’s come up with a solution yet, and frankly, I don’t know what that solution would be. There’s only so many beds out there and so much money.”

DANGEROUS EQUATION

In Washington County’s jail, 400 inmates at the beginning of 2013 steadily increased to 611 on Friday, Maj. Randall Denzer said. About 230, double those a year ago, are waiting to go to the state, according to the department’s online population tracker.

Numbers at the Benton County jail in Bentonville are about the same.

Washington County’s jail has 710 beds and usually holds fewer because inmates must be separated by gender, if they’re awaiting trial, and several other factors.

When more people are crammed together, increased violence is almost inevitable, Denzer said.

“You couldn’t put that many police officers together,” he said. “This is a very dangerous babysitting service.”

Between July and December, inmates attacked another inmate or an officer 64 times, Helder said, including the December sexual assault. Javaughntai Willis and J’Donta Britt pleaded not guilty to charges from the incident.

Some people think they’re headed to prison anyway and are trying to speed it up, Helder said. For Willis, that came true. After the assault deputies say Willis was involved in, he was transferred to the state’s East Arkansas Regional Unit near Memphis, Tenn.

Pure numbers are only part of the problem, Helder added. The jail has tapped its work-release and community service programs and dozens of ankle monitors for non-violent offenders, leaving the more violent offenders behind. Even moving people to Louisiana is being considered.

“We can’t put everybody on community service,” Helder said. About 100 offenders are in that program. “We’re taking as many people into those programs as we can.”

BIGGER BILLS

The state reimburses counties for its inmates at $28 per person per day, but inmates cost around $45 to house, Denzer said. That means after state payments the county lost about $1 million in 2013 housing state prisoners, based on counts from Denzer.

Since December they’ve cost the county another quarter of a million dollars.

Much of that money has gone to food, and even more to medical bills. About $325,000 was budgeted for medicine and hospital stays in 2013. Denzer spent $483,000, and some bills have yet to be paid.

“These people are getting sicker and sicker; a lot of them don’t take very good care of themselves,” he said. “That’s what’s going to hurt us. But we have no control.”

What’s more, the state is behind on its reimbursement, Denzer said, to the tune of $175,000.

Wilson, however, said payments are up to date.

“If someone hasn’t been paid, it may be because they didn’t approve the invoice and return it back in the timeframe for processing that month’s checks,” she wrote in an email.

Helder and Baldwin had other suggestions: double-bunking more in state prisons as county jails do already or bumping up county reimbursement.

Wilson said the department is seeking $6 million in additional money for county payments and $5 million to begin design and construction of a 1,000-bed prison. Gov. Mike Beebe is pushing for other increases as well.

“The (legislators) I’ve spoken with directly, they certainly understand the problem,” Baldwin said, but he added the legislature seems most focused on health insurance issues. “We’re just going to have to wait to see how this fiscal session shakes out.”

Helder said he didn’t think the jail needed to be expanded, but more money from the Quorum Court would be welcome. Cheryl Bolinger, who tracks county budgets as comptroller, agreed. Voters in 2002 approved a quarter-cent sales tax for operation and maintenance of the jail.

“It’s only going to get worse,” she said. “Unless they pass another sales tax to support the jail, or increase the property taxes, the millage, they’re never going to have enough. Sales tax is not enough to support the jail.”

County Treasurer Roger Haney told the Quorum Court’s law enforcement committee he moved $800,000 to the jail budget to make up some of the shortfall. The money came from an unappropriated reserve in the county general fund, which includes $3.3 million for whenever the jail needs it.

“We can’t put everybody on community service. We’re taking as many people into those programs as we can.”

TIM HELDER

Washington County sheriff