Proposal on jail charges set for vote

Pulaski County JPs to weigh inmate-based costs for cities

The Pulaski County Quorum Court is to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would charge cities for the jail inmates held for them in the absence of a jail-payment contract with the county.

"I expect it to pass," Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay said.

The Quorum Court, voting 14-0, gave preliminary approval for the ordinance July 8. District 9 Justice of the Peace Wilma Walker, D-College Station, was not present for the meeting.

Under the ordinance, the county would charge cities $245 per inmate for the first day an inmate is held in the jail and $44 per inmate for each day afterward. The figures are based on first-day medical examination costs, jail personnel salaries, and a portion of the salaries of personnel in the county attorney's office, the comptroller's office, the professional standards unit and the county sheriff's office.

Comptroller Mike Hutchens said those salaries were included because of the amount of work those offices do for the jail. The jail employs 343 people, more than a quarter of the county's full-time employees.

Under the ordinance, cities would pay more than they do now for use of the jail.

Pulaski County's five biggest cities -- Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, Jacksonville and Maumelle -- have a contract with the county to collectively pay $2.9 million toward the jail. That contract expires Aug. 1, but officials are working on a new one.

If the cities were subject to the ordinance, they would have paid $6 million collectively to the county in 2013, based on the number of inmates held for them.

Acting County Attorney Amanda Mitchell said if the ordinance passes, cities would not immediately be charged under the ordinance unless they don't pay what they've already promised in their budgets for 2014.

Three cities have fulfilled their 2014 payments already, but Little Rock and North Little Rock have installment payments remaining.

Pulaski County has proposed a new jail-funding contract that would begin Jan. 1 and that the county's five biggest cities can individually decide whether to sign onto.

The contract would charge cities 5 percent more in 2015 than in 2014 and would tack on a consumer price index factor each year after that for four years. The mayors and city councils must approve any new jail contract.

Smaller cities would be subject to the ordinance, should their police officers take inmates to the county jail.

For example, Cammack Village, a small city of 768 tucked between Little Rock and the Arkansas River, has its own Police Department and would fall under the ordinance.

Wrightsville does not have its own Police Department, however, and would not be affected by the ordinance, Holladay said.

Alexander, which straddles the Pulaski and Saline county line, takes the majority of its inmates to the Saline County jail, interim Police Chief Derrick Jackson said. Jackson said he hadn't heard about the ordinance and was not concerned about it.

Holladay doesn't anticipate the ordinance having much of an impact.

"It's there, but it's going to be there more as protection rather than actual implementation, because I think an agreement with the cities is going to be reached that is acceptable to all the parties," Holladay said.

Metro on 07/21/2014

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