BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials have tentative plans to expand the jail within the next 60 days, easing the overcrowding problem district court judges have said hampers the operation of their courts.
County Judge Bob Clinard told the Finance Committee on Thursday there's money in the 2015 budget to pay for a partial solution, moving some administrative offices and other non-jail function now in a jail pod and opening space to misdemeanor prisoners.
Courts building
Benton County’s justices of the peace will discuss possible locations for a courts building when the Public Safety Committee meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville. The county is considering options to replace or renovate the County Courthouse, which was built in 1928.
Source: Staff report
"We started discussion two or three months ago as to how we can resolve this misdemeanor prisoner issue," Clinard said.
Clinard said the jail's F-pod was designed and built to hold misdemeanor inmates but not used for that purpose. He said there are laundry facilities, an exercise and workout area and other offices. He said those will be moved into a new building designed for administrative uses and not jail space. Clinard and Capt. Jeremy Guyll estimated the county could have space for 30 misdemeanor inmates after the initial 60-day project is completed. Clinard said the work will cost about $30,000.
The initial conversion is part of a larger project Clinard asked the justices of the peace to endorse. He said completing the F-pod for misdemeanor inmates will give the county about 90 spaces when the work is done and another short-term expansion will give the jail another 12 cells for female inmates. Guyll said the county has open barracks-type space for female inmates and the cells will allow the jail to separate women who need to be segregated because of their sentences and because of bad behavior in the jail.
Clinard he will put out a request for qualifications for an architect to design the major jail expansion. He said the initial expansion and the major construction project could cost between $1.8 million and $1.9 million. He said he will also ask the architect to provide a design for another jail pod for felony inmates that would add space for another 150 to 20 inmates if the county decides to build that addition.
The committee voted to allow Clinard to seek an architect. Clinard said he can't offer any hard budget numbers on the project or the cost of the architectural services until after he has the responses and can negotiate with architects interested in doing the work.
The justices of the peace also discussed possible funding options for the new courts building the county is considering. Benton County has been studying a courts building and has narrowed its options down to a downtown Bentonville plan that includes a new building and use of the existing county courthouse and other buildings and an option to construct a building on county land near the jail and Road Department on SW 14th Street in Bentonville.
The cost of the two options ranges from about $24 million for the SW 14th Street plan to a total project cost of about $32 million for the downtown plan, which includes construction and renovation of existing buildings.
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and committee chairman, asked the committee to consider funding options that would give the county about $25 million to do the work. The committee was given information on a variety of methods, including a sales tax increase; an increase in property tax millage; revenue from court fines and restitution; and general obligation bonds. The justices of the peace were given scenarios with the county contributing $7.5 million, $10 million, or $12.5 million to the project from reserve. The committee will hear a more detailed presentation on the cost of financing at its May meeting.
"I just wanted us to start thinking about this now," Allen said.
The committee also recommended approval of an ordinance to increase the daily fee the county charges cities for holding prisoners in the county jail to $45 per day. The county now charges cities $40 per day for each prisoner held.
NW News on 04/03/2015