A formal request to move the operations of the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center from Pine Bluff to West Memphis was sent Wednesday to Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson for approval, but the governor said he needs more information before signing off on the transfer.
"The governor's most concerned with the employees there in Pine Bluff and will make his decision after he's presented with a plan on those employees and their job opportunities," J.R. Davis, the governor's spokesman, said Wednesday afternoon.
The plan is to move the 350 nonviolent female inmates from the Arkansas Community Correction agency's unit in Pine Bluff to the vacant Crittenden County Hospital in West Memphis.
In addition to the inmates, 138 jobs will transfer, including 12 medical/counseling positions provided by a state contractor. The jobs pay between $21,827 and $52,530, according to Arkansas Community Correction Deputy Director Dina Tyler.
Tyler said Arkansas Community Correction was in the process of putting together a written report on jobs for displaced employees from Pine Bluff.
Kevin Murphy, chief deputy director of Arkansas Community Correction, said regarding the governor, "We feel confident that he'll support it."
The Crittenden County Quorum Court and the state Board of Corrections voted Tuesday in separate meetings to allow Arkansas Community Correction to lease the three-story hospital and a smaller professional building behind it.
Arkansas Community Correction has said the Pine Bluff unit needs upward of $10 million in repairs to remain useful. The cost to retrofit the hospital into a lockup and make some repairs is estimated at $650,000, which already has been budgeted by the state.
The move matters to Pine Bluff and West Memphis because both cities are struggling economically because of job loss and population decline.
Murphy, who was formerly head of human resources for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said it would be ideal for the workers at the Pine Bluff unit to take similar positions in West Memphis.
There are other options for those who can't or don't want to move, Murphy said. Some might consider going for a promotion, Murphy said. For example, if a prison sergeant were to decline the offer to move, a correctional officer might decide it was worth transferring for a rise in rank.
Arkansas Community Correction also has facilities in Little Rock and Malvern where employees could work, as well as jobs in the state's parole and probation offices.
"We're going to give them a list of all of our open jobs," Murphy said. "They can select the ones they're interested in, and as long as they meet the qualifications, we'll screen those and try to place them in those jobs."
Murphy said some 300 positions are also available with the Arkansas Department of Correction, all within 60 miles of Pine Bluff. He has estimated that 10 to 15 percent of the Arkansas Community Correction employees in Pine Bluff would make the move to West Memphis.
The state Board of Corrections has statutory authority to close and open facilities, Murphy said.
However, the personnel subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council would have to approve salaries for flex personnel who would be needed during the transition, said state Rep. Vivian Flowers, whose district includes Pine Bluff and thus the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center.
Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, she has been contacted by more than a dozen of the unit's employees and others who oppose the move. She said she did not attend the Board of Corrections meeting Tuesday because she didn't feel it would make a difference.
"If they weren't listening to their own constituents, I thought we would be better-suited appealing to the governor," Flowers said.
Flowers said she wants Arkansas Community Correction to consider building on the existing Pine Bluff campus or look at another place to locate in Pine Bluff or Jefferson County.
"A lot of the narrative is being built around what's best for the residents [of the units] and for the employees, and meanwhile, the residents and employees are telling me they don't want to move," Flowers said.
Moving to West Memphis, near the Arkansas-Tennessee border, would place a "huge hardship" on families who visit inmates, she said.
"Many of them are mothers, and many of them are not wealthy people," Flowers said. "Those kinds of things are not being taken into consideration."
Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said more than 3,000 signatures had been gathered in one week from constituents who want to keep the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center and jobs in Pine Bluff. She said she hopes to get the petition to the governor by the week's end.
"These 3,000 signatures represent the direct impact this is going to have on 138 families," Hollingsworth said
Murphy said, "The problem is that signatures don't repair the building."
"We're not anxious or even looking forward to leaving Pine Bluff ... but when the sun sets, we've still got some buildings that require millions of dollars to repair," Murphy said.
State Desk on 03/17/2016