CORRECTION: An Arkansas Legislative Council subcommittee approved an extra $7.4 million to increase bed space at a Pine Bluff prison on Tuesday. This article incorrectly identified the date of the approval.
The state's prison population was at its highest yet on Thursday.
During a meeting of the Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions Subcommittee, Department of Correction Director Wendy Kelley told lawmakers the department's "jurisdictional" count, the number of offenders assigned to its care, has reached 19,055, a figure never seen before.
"We continued to grow," Kelley said. "It sets another record. Unfortunately."
Kelley told lawmakers that efforts to find space for prisoners, as well as those aimed at reducing parolee recidivism, are moving forward only gradually.
The vice chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. David Fielding, D-Magnolia, noted that the rising number of state prisoners over the past two years -- prompted in part by policy changes aimed at cracking down on parolees who don't follow the rules -- is taking a toll on jails.
As of Thursday, of those 19,055 prisoners, 15,938 are held in state facilities.
A total of 2,705 state prisoners are being held in county jails, below the high of 2,884 seen in February 2014, but well above the 1,600 threshold Arkansas Sheriffs' Association head Ronnie Baldwin said is acceptable.
The remaining 412 jurisdictional prisoners are being housed at alternative facilities throughout the state.
Kelley pointed out that the number of prisoners held at jails has been in flux, with Thursday's figure being nearly 500 more than the same date last year.
"What is the plan that [the Correction Department] has in getting those prisoners out of the county jails?" Fielding said. "You got a timeline?"
"For the 2,705 [in jails], no sir," Kelley said. "There are different things being explored."
Kelley said she has visited several out-of-state facilities, some of which are privately run, to see what the benefits and the costs would be for housing inmates.
Of the four or five facilities she's been in contact with, Kelley got a quote from just one -- $57 a day per inmate -- cheaper than the $64 average daily cost of housing an inmate at a state lockup.
Multiple private incarceration groups have met with lawmakers in Little Rock, but Kelley said she would have to work on getting cost estimates, as well as details on inmate services, before she could ask for funding to start moving inmates out of state.
Kelley said she didn't know when or even if that might happen.
So far this year, the prison opened up 600 beds with extra money from a $33 million corrections overhaul from the Legislature, including a contract with the Bowie County jail in Texas to house more than 300 Arkansas offenders.
Last week, legislators approved another $7.4 million to help add another 200 prison beds to the state's Ester unit in Pine Bluff.
Prisons spokesman Cathy Frye said the Ester unit will be able to house another 172 offenders by the start of next year, raising the total availability there to 372.
Once those beds are filled, work will start on renovations for the new 200 beds, Frye said.
Baldwin told lawmakers that for the past two years, sheriffs have been "asking and begging" for help from the state and that he thinks paying $7.4 million for renovations at an old prison seemed "excessive" considering cheaper options out of state.
Parole officials said Thursday that they are still working on opening transitional re-entry programs for 500 offenders but that only two facilities, one in Little Rock for 10 inmates and one in Conway for 30, have been licensed and are still far from becoming operational.
Along with that, Kelley said, other things will have to happen to bring down the numbers.
"[State prisons don't] have any more beds coming online," Kelley said. "I don't have any other light at the end of the tunnel right now."
Nationally, prison rates are dropping, Kelley said, but Arkansas is bucking that trend.
A consultant group brought in by prison and parole officials announced in June that Arkansas' prison rolls will reach 25,671 if substantive changes are not made.
So far this year, 6,060 new inmates were admitted to state prisons. More than half, 3,307, were parolees who were returned to prison for offenses that broke the terms of their release.
Sheila Sharp, director of the Department of Community Correction, said she will make several proposals to the Board of Corrections today to change some policies to slow the rate of parole revocations.
Next week, Gov. Asa Hutchinson will kick off a two-day conference aimed, in part, at drawing more nonprofits and faith-based groups to help lower recidivism.
Metro on 08/21/2015