PINE BLUFF -- A riot involving 80 inmates at the Jefferson County jail broke out Wednesday night, causing more than $20,000 in damage to jail property during a disturbance in which prisoners clogged toilets and ripped sprinkler heads from the ceiling.
No one was injured in the upheaval, which ended about 10:50 p.m. and was contained to one pod at the downtown Pine Bluff jail, Sheriff's Office spokesman Maj. Lafayette Woods Jr. said.
Deputies at the 327-inmate capacity jail, currently holding 381 inmates, first noticed one of two cameras in the pod where the riot occurred was covered at about 7 p.m.
A review of jail video showed an inmate whose identity was obscured by a shirt or blanket wrapped around his face and head using what jail officials believe to be water-soaked toilet paper to cover the camera, Woods said.
Woods said the Sheriff's Office estimated most of the damage occurred between 8 and 10 p.m., as special response team along with Pine Bluff police officers prepared to enter the pod.
"As soon as we arrived at the jail, responding to the call, there was no more combativeness or combativeness from the detainees," Woods said. "They all complied with the demands of ... going into lockdown."
The damage in the pod included duct work, ceiling tiles and sprinkler heads being destroyed, along with broken glass and flooding from the blocked toilets, sheriff's officials said.
"They tore that pod up," Sheriff Gerald Robinson said. "It was a big mess. There was water all over the pod. It was everywhere."
The pod contained inmates there on misdemeanor and felony charges and prisoners who have been sentenced to the Arkansas Department of Correction and were awaiting transfer, Woods said.
New charges haven't been brought against inmates involved in the riot, but the Sheriff's Office is investigating, Woods said.
Authorities believe the riot started as a reaction to recent restrictions and tightened security.
The constraints and safety measures were put in place as a response to a recent influx of contraband, including cellphones and marijuana being smuggled into the pod, Woods said. Officials are also investigating how the contraband found its way into the jail.
Authorities "pretty much restricted everything except what we are required to do, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner" inside the pod, Woods said.
Both Robinson and Woods said they believe the camera obstruction was an attempt to lure a responding deputy into the pod by himself, but jail employees were told to hold back until an adequate response team could be assembled.
"What we are most thankful of is we only lost property and not a life or had a serious injury to a jailer or a detainee," Woods said.
Robinson said he worries inadequate staffing, lack of funding, low salaries and a high employee turnover rate at the jail are creating a dangerous situation for employees and inmates alike.
"We are not dealing with livelihoods," Robinson said. "We are dealing with people's lives."
The jail is fully staffed at 48 employees but employs only 36 right now, and Robinson said inmates know the jail is short-staffed.
"I'm trying to convince the Quorum Court that the staffing is inadequate, and the budget restraints they have put on us have caused us to lose 12 [employee] slots at the jail," Robinson said.
Besides the budgetary constraints, fully staffing the jail is problematic because of the high turnover rate, Robinson said. A beginning jailer makes $23,000 a year.
"You can go to McDonald's and make $10 an hour and be in a safer environment than coming [here] and working for $23,000 a year, which is about $11 an hour," Robinson said.
Jefferson County officials would likely face difficulties in finding more money for the jail.
Last week, the Jefferson County Quorum Court unanimously approved a measure to temporarily shore up the struggling budget. The July 24 vote came after weeks of debate about how to fix a budget crisis that nearly left the county without funds to pay many of its workers.
County elected officials juggled thousands of dollars from different parts of their budgets, including Robinson temporarily removing several Sheriff's Office employees' salaries from the general fund and placing them into a public-safety tax fund instead.
The county still faces long-term budgetary issues because of a drop in population and its tax base, along with its spending outpacing its revenue.
"I understand about funding," Robinson said. "I understand all those things. But you can't play politics with a person's life. You just can't do it. My thing is we have to do what's right. What's right is we adequately staff that jail, adequately pay those people so they're not at the poverty level. We have to.
"This is not about politics. My officers' safety and the operation of the jail is most important."
Justice of the Peace Lloyd Franklin II said Thursday a fully funded jail is a necessity the Quorum Court can't overlook.
"I'll be honest with you: It's one of those things where it's not a if, it's a when," he said. "It has to happen. It's inevitable, but the problem is our Quorum Court is not very proactive. This is something that's been ongoing for years now. It's not just something that happened yesterday."
NW News on 07/31/2015