The state's largest jail reopened its doors to low-level offenders Monday, lifting restrictions set in place by the county sheriff to alleviate problems brought on by overcrowding in the state's prisons.
Concerns voiced for months over the costs and safety risks posed by a backlog of state inmates in the Pulaski County jail waiting for prison beds culminated April 29 when Sheriff Doc Holladay shut the doors to most nonviolent offenders.
On Monday, Pulaski County jail deputies booked in 27-year-old Rickey Cooper after his arrest by Sherwood officers on a charge of failing to appear in court; they took in James Ferrell, 24, after his arrest in North Little Rock over unpaid fines; and they booked in 43-year-old Lamont Perry after his arrest on several felony drug charges in Little Rock.
Under the restrictions put in place by Holladay, none of the three would likely have seen the inside of a jail cell, according to sheriff's officials.
Holladay's jail averaged 1,270 inmates in April, well over the jail's funding for 1,210 beds, and was above 1,300 for nearly a week before he closed the facility to all but the most serious and dangerous offenders.
Now that normal jail operations have resumed, Holladay said he doesn't know how long he'll stay completely open and that the state's prison space problem, one that has left 2,576 state inmates waiting for prison beds in county jails across the state, is very much a looming problem.
"I'm hopeful we'll stay open," Holladay said. "I'd like to say we'll be able to stay open permanently but, you know, I think all of us know that these populations, with this backlog throughout the state, it's the major influence on how our county jails are able to function now."
The county jail had 1,126 inmates early Monday, and nearly half of those were state inmates.
Holladay said that 226 inmates were parolees who had been revoked back to prison, 28 were parolees with new holds on them, and another 252 were inmates committed to prison from the courts.
One such inmate is 21-year-old Larry Ishmon. He has been in jail for 600 days since his Oct. 17, 2012 booking and arrest on battery and aggravated robbery charges out of Little Rock.
Ishmon faces a 30-year prison sentence after his Feb. 14 conviction but has remained in the county jail as a state inmate ever since.
Unable to move Ishmon and other state inmates, the jail turned away arrestees like Cheryl Drake, whose May 28 booking after a drug surveillance operation by undercover detectives netted three felony drug charges. She was cited and released "reluctantly" by prosecutors "due to [the] jail being closed."
The problem, one that has been building since more stringent parole and probation reforms enacted last summer, is not restricted to Pulaski County, though Holladay is the only sheriff to partially "close" his constitutionally mandated jail.
Arkansas Sheriff's Association Executive Director Ronnie Baldwin said the 2,576 state inmates being held in jails across the state pose financial problems and safety issues for both the public and those deputies charged with supervising state inmates.
That backlog is the result of a clogged prison system, one with a capacity for 13,794 beds, but which housed 14,420 inmates Monday.
The financial stress put on county budgets and the mental stress put on jailers prompted the sheriff's association to send a June 4 memorandum requesting that a special legislative session be convened to address prison overcrowding.
Baldwin said the association wants the state to cap the number of beds for state inmates housed in county jails at 1,600, out of roughly 9,400 county and city jail beds statewide.
The memorandum also suggested that the state start contracting with out-of-state facilities to house inmates in order to put a crack in the backlog.
As of Monday, Baldwin said he'd heard a lot of positive feedback from legislators committed to helping address the crisis, but said it was unclear if the issue would make it to legislators before their scheduled session next January.
"We're kind of in limbo," Baldwin said. "We're trying to protect our home counties and we can't lock up those who need to be incarcerated because of the state backup. We've got to have some immediate relief."
Shea Wilson, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said that the prison system was able to get funding for 200 additional beds during the Legislature's fiscal session earlier this year, and an additional 58 that will be available soon.
She said prison officials are eyeing 330 beds that are not funded to help with the overcrowding, which would cost about $3.1 million a year, but that there is only so much the state can do without building more facilities.
"We know [local jails] are feeling it just like we are," Wilson said.
When asked if corrections officials are considering outsourcing some of the prison population to other states, Wilson said her agency is focused on finding the money to pay for space already available in the state.
Matt DeCample, spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said that the governor's office has been in talks with prison officials to discuss solutions to the backlog but he did not know "when and if any such [special legislative] session will occur."
In the meantime, state prison officials are trying to accommodate jails bursting at the seams, according to Wilson, who said that the jails in Washington, Jefferson, Crittenden, Boone and Pope are targeted for relief.
Baldwin said it's not just larger jails feeling the effects of the state's backlog.
"I got an email the other day where the [Polk County] jail administrator said 'Ronnie, I'm drowning. In a 27-bed jail, I've got 32 inmates -- 21 belong to the State of Arkansas,'" Baldwin said. "It's affecting small jails to the point where they can't operate."
Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen said his jail has come close to the breaking point several times. Able to house 350, he had 323 on Monday, and about 170 of those belonged to the state.
County jail deputies don't get the training, or pay, that prison guards receive and the constant stress of housing more hardened inmates is taking a toll, he said.
"We've seen a high turnover rate since we're having to hold so many [state] inmates," Allen said. "It's like running a small prison. ... The tension gets thicker when you have inmates who are more prone for fights, more prone for causing problems."
A section on 06/10/2014