Without a jail, Madison County Sheriff Phillip Morgan has gotten used to hauling prisoners back and forth between the courthouse in Huntsville and the Washington County jail in Fayetteville, 30 miles to the west.
"It's aggravating to have to transport people over there, and go back and get them for court, to shuffle them back and forth," Morgan said.
On Jan. 1, Madison County's 33-year-old jail became a temporary 24-hour holding facility. It was the only jail in the county.
Located in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas, Madison County has a population of 15,717.
The jail was built to accommodate eight beds, but it often housed more prisoners than that, said Madison County Clerk Faron Ledbetter.
Last year, the state's 4th District Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee found that the Madison County jail didn't comply with state standards.
Besides insufficient staffing, the committee cited eight violations at the lockup. One of the problems was that the jail didn't meet the minimum requirement of 50 square feet of cell space per prisoner, and 70 square feet for those confined to cells for more than 16 hours a day.
Frank Weaver, county judge of Madison County, sent the committee a letter saying Madison County didn't have money to fix the problems, so officials decided to voluntarily close the jail at the end of 2014. The letter was signed by Weaver, Morgan and Ledbetter.
A temporary holding facility is exempt from some of the requirements for a jail, such as minimum cell and food-service space, Ledbetter said.
By using the old Madison County jail as a temporary holding facility, people who are arrested can often bond out before being transferred to the jail in Fayetteville, Morgan said.
Ledbetter said Washington County is charging $50 per day to house each Madison County prisoner.
That's a "fair price," he said, noting that it's a little cheaper than what it cost to house them in Madison County's old jail.
Calculations done in 2009 indicated that it cost $52.37 per day to keep a prisoner in the jail in Huntsville. That included all extemporaneous costs -- such as meals, utilities, medical care, clothing, insurance and jailer salaries.
But the sheriff's office is spending more money now on transportation, Ledbetter said. The cost to transport prisoners has been running about $800 to $900 per month, according to a spreadsheet from the county clerk. That includes about $500 per month in employee hours, and $300 to $400 in fuel and vehicle costs.
Deputies are taken off patrols to ride in the van with the prisoners.
"You're also taking a deputy out of service, so to speak," Ledbetter said. "If they're doing a lot of transporting back and forth, that's time that they're not working on crimes and things they need to be doing."
Madison County officials budgeted $200,000 to house prisoners in the Washington County jail this year. So far, they've spent about $190,000, Ledbetter said.
Since they've spent less on transportation than expected, money will be moved from that line item in the budget to pay Washington County, he said.
So far this year, on a monthly basis, the Washington County jail has housed an average of 29 male and nine female prisoners for Madison County. The total number of days for incarceration varies from month to month. The bill from Washington County has ranged from $12,300 in January to $46,100 in April.
The Madison County prisoners aren't putting much of a strain on the Washington County jail, said its administrator, Randall Denzer. He said the jail in Fayetteville can accommodate 710 prisoners and currently houses about 682.
Denzer said Washington County will continue to take the Madison County prisoners for "as long as we've got room."
Ledbetter said Madison County needs a new jail, but it would require a tax increase, and he doesn't see that happening anytime soon.
On three occasions, the county asked voters to approve a 1 percent sales tax to help fund construction of a new jail or at least an addition to the exiting jail. The tax increase was rejected all three times -- in 2008, 2013 and 2014.
"It wasn't even close," Ledbetter said. "It just has not been received well."
Ledbetter said a 1 percent sales tax in Madison County would generate about $1.2 million a year in revenue.
The estimated cost to build a new jail is $4.8 million for 28 beds, $5.1 million for 38 beds and $5.4 million for 50 beds, Ledbetter said. Although it doesn't cost that much more to build a larger jail, the cost of operating a jail increases considerably with its size, he said.
In the meantime, Madison County will continue transporting prisoners to Fayetteville -- and occasionally the 32 miles to the Carroll County jail in Berryville, where Madison County has the same agreement as it does with Washington County.
"We're probably looking at doing this for a while, for the immediate future and maybe longer," Ledbetter said.
On the opposite side of Arkansas, the situation is similar in Phillips County, which borders the Mississippi River.
State officials closed the 75-bed jail in Helena-West Helena in April 2013 after it failed a state inspection.
Since then, Phillips County has been sending its prisoners to jails in other cities -- 38 miles away to Brickeys, 44 miles to Forrest City or 60 miles to Wynne.
It costs about $750,000 a year to do so, County Judge Don Gentry said. That's about what it would cost to operate a new jail in Phillips County, he said.
"But that money is going up the road," he said.
Phillips County is paying other counties between $35 and $55 per day to house its prisoners, he said.
On July 14, voters in Phillips County resoundingly rejected a 0.5 percent sales tax to help fund construction and operation of a new jail. Voters also rejected a proposed $4.35 million bond issue to build a new jail.
Phillips County voters rejected the same proposal last year, Gentry said.
"I imagine we're going to be without a jail for a while," he said.
Metro on 08/02/2015