Prisons are among the most unpopular expenditures of public money, yet Arkansas may have to find a way to build a new one.
While taxpayers would likely prefer to spend their money for something other than a state prison or a county lockup, it is inevitable a lot of public money must be used to protect us all from criminal offenders.
Which offenders we need protecting from is another question, one that gets argued repeatedly at state and local levels. Right now, current policy -- including stricter probation and parole enforcement -- is packing inmates into the prisons and jails and forcing discussion about building more.
In fact, groundwork is being laid to persuade the next governor and state lawmakers to endorse another costly state prison, which might be paid for by increasing fees for Arkansas license plates.
Officials with the Arkansas Department of Correction say they'll need up to $100 million to build a new prison and another $25 million annually to operate it.
At least that was their message to state lawmakers last week. These would be the same lawmakers who recently approved stopgap spending to relieve prison overcrowding. Far too many state prisoners are backed up into the county jails, where they await transfer to prison.
The $6.3 million in emergency spending, recommended by Gov. Mike Beebe and approved by lawmakers in a special session last month, will create only a temporary relief valve to the chronic overcrowding.
Those dollars are being used to open more than 300 beds in the state prison system as well as additional beds in the Pulaski County jail, which has had to close to additional inmates because of the backed-up prisoners.
Essentially, the state is providing additional personnel to allow that jail and other state facilities to be put to use. Meanwhile, the state is looking to build a new prison and some counties are trying to replace or enlarge their jails, too.
The chairman of the state Board of Corrections, Benny Magness, told lawmakers last week that the $6 million-plus was "unbelievably crucial to solving some of the pain the counties and sheriffs were having."
But, he said, the state will have to do a lot more.
He put the cost to build a 1,000-bed jail at between $75 million and $100 million, depending on the design.
A maximum-security facility, as recommended by a Correction Board committee, would be more expensive to build and would house the state's worst offenders, a factor that could affect location of the prison. The board will soon seek proposals from communities willing to host a facility.
The big cost of any prison over time is the cost to operate it, estimated at about $25 million a year for a facility that would employ about 400 people. Those jobs, not the prisons themselves, are the attraction for host communities.
For the record, the 1,000 beds projected for a new prison and the several hundred additional beds opened as a result of the special session funding still fall well short of the number needed to house all the inmates backed up in the county jails.
The numbers last week, according to the Department of Correction, showed the state prison population at more than 17,000, with at least 2,300 of them housed in county jails. If that's not enough of a problem, the department projects the state's inmate population to top 20,000 in the next decade.
Obviously, this is a perpetual problem, one aggravated most recently by the state's effort to utilize parole and probation to control offenders.
The director of Arkansas Community Correction, which oversees those programs, reminded lawmakers last week they need to invest more there, too. Sheila Sharp's agency will request another $9.5 million next year, with part of the funding going to hire more probation and parole officers. The policy should eventually pay off at least enough to reduce by some measure the numbers of prisoners returning to lockup.
Nothing seems to stop the upward trend in incarceration in this state, a fact that is concerning as well as expensive.
That's why the state must make probation and parole work.
Other diversion programs, including drug treatment, must also be part of the equation to reduce the numbers and costs of dealing with criminal offenders.
None of it is easy, but all of it, including a new prison, may be necessary.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME NORTHWEST ARKANSAS JOURNALIST.
Commentary on 07/30/2014