FAYETTEVILLE -- The number of men and women held in Washington and Benton county jails soared this week, which local and state officials said signals an end to the recent lull in the state's inmate backlog and makes the search for more jail space even more urgent.
The Washington County Detention Center's population brushed near 650 on Wednesday and Thursday, up from 500 in December and one of the highest counts since the statewide backlog of convicted inmates waiting for transfer began hitting record levels more than a year ago. The jail population settled near 620 by Friday afternoon. Benton County Jail filled almost 540 of its beds on Friday, according to its online roster.
Making room
A Department of Correction spokeswoman pointed to several projects to open up room for state inmates this year:
• Pine Bluff work-release center: 54 women
• Bowie County Annex, Texas: 288 inmates
• Ester Unit in Pine Bluff renovations: Work to open 184 beds to begin in July, with another 172 beds possible by the end of the year; for parole re-entry
Source: Department of Correction
More than a third of the people in both jails were in state custody waiting to be transferred to state prisons too full to accept them. The state backlog was about 2,800 this week, Department of Correction spokeswoman Cathy Frye said. That's up from about 2,200 in April and near last year's peak.
It's the same situation county jails have been dealing with for months and shows the relief provided by sending almost 300 inmates to Bowie County in Texas in March was temporary, said Maj. Randall Denzer, who oversees the Washington County jail.
"They found some more room here, some more room there, and they seemed to be on a good track," Denzer said Wednesday. "Supposedly they're out of options."
State and local officials have blamed the backlog problem on parole rules that were tightened in 2013 and longer sentences for more crimes.
Denzer and Sheriff Tim Helder previously have said a crowded jail means tension and occasional violence between inmates and toward guards. The Benton and Washington county jails each technically had between 80 and 100 beds open Friday, but the need to separate by sex and other factors substantially lowers the capacity.
Some inmates in the Washington County jail are sleeping on mats on the floor, something that happened often last year, Denzer said. Messages to Benton County spokeswoman Deputy Keshia Guyll's cell phone Friday afternoon weren't returned.
The department's aware of the recent increase, Frye said, pointing to several piecemeal expansions underway. A work-release center for 54 women opened last month. The General Assembly earlier this year passed measures to allow the Texas transfer and open up several hundred beds at the Ester Unit near Pine Bluff by the end of the year. The Arkansas beds should start opening up this summer, Frye said, and the department plans to dedicate them to people nearing their parole.
Legislators created several commissions and task forces to find ways to ease the strain on the system and directed the Department of Correction to focus on re-entry programs and help in a long-term attempt to make sure inmates don't return to prison.
"It's going to take time for some of this to happen," Frye said. "We know the sheriffs are struggling, and we are doing our best to find beds for state inmates as quickly as possible. We do believe, however, that the legislation passed during the session will help address the crux of the problem -- the high number of parolees reentering the prison system."
Ronnie Baldwin, director of the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association, called the backlog's resurgence "discouraging."
"I can't say nothing has happened, they have taken different steps. But the fact remains we still have a problem," he said. "There's a lot of things in place, but it's taking time, and quite frankly we've run out of time."
The state's justice system needs to be "revamped," Baldwin said. The parole system needs more staff members, he said, and the state needs to be more willing to send people in custody out of the state, like in the contract with Texas.
"My personal opinion is I think we need to take a look at the possibility of taking 1,000 inmates and shipping them down to Louisiana," he said, acknowledging doing so is a temporary solution. "I just don't know that's an effective way to manage your jail population, where you get to the point where you have to let one out before you can let one in."
NW News on 05/23/2015