Officials in Jefferson and Crittenden counties are waiting not so patiently on word from the governor about whether the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center will move it operations from its longtime home in Pine Bluff to West Memphis.
The state Board of Corrections and the Crittenden County Quorum Court voted in separate meetings March 15 to enter into a lease agreement that would allow the 350 or so female inmates at the Pine Bluff facility to move into the vacant Crittenden County Hospital. The county would lease the hospital to the Arkansas Community Correction agency for $1 a year.
Officials with Arkansas Community Correction said the Pine Bluff center, used mainly for rehab and counseling for nonviolent offenders, needs some $10 million in repairs to remain functional. Pine Bluff has been home to the center for 17 years.
The possible relocation matters to Pine Bluff and West Memphis, located about two hours apart, because both cities are struggling economically because of job loss and population decline.
At stake are 138 jobs that would be transferred to West Memphis, including 12 medical/counseling positions provided by a state contractor. The jobs pay between $21,827 and $52,530 a year, Arkansas Community Correction Deputy Director Dina Tyler has said.
Only Gov. Asa Hutchinson's approval is needed to put the move into action.
Since the state Board of Corrections entered into an agreement to lease the hospital, at least two state legislators and officials from Jefferson County have gone to the state Capitol and spoken with Hutchinson in an effort to keep Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center in Pine Bluff.
State Rep. Vivian Flowers, whose district includes Pine Bluff, said she is dismayed by how poorly the Pine Bluff center has been maintained and renovated over the past 17 years. She questioned why employees who would be displaced should pay the price for such a move.
"It's not consistent," Flowers said. "It's not transparent. It's not timely. It's not inclusive. We should have been called. It just wasn't done right."
Flowers and state Rep. Kenneth Ferguson, also of Pine Bluff and also a Democrat, met privately with Hutchinson on Thursday morning.
"I got from the meeting that they are working on a transition plan in case this does go through," Ferguson said. "The governor has not yet said one way or the other."
Samona Smith, who has worked as a correctional officer at Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center for six months, said she isn't prepared to uproot her family of four and move to West Memphis. She left a job in New Orleans to take the one in Pine Bluff.
Her husband teaches math for the Watson Chapel School District, and the couple have a ninth-grade son and eighth-grade daughter in school in Pine Bluff.
"They want us to up and move with no money or incentives to move," Smith said. "It's just, 'Go find your own place and come to work.'"
Hutchinson has received a detailed report on the job prospects for any displaced workers from the Pine Bluff facility.
"The governor is making sure employees have good options, and will have an answer soon," spokesman J.R. Davis said Thursday.
Employees who can't easily make the transition to West Memphis might consider making the move for a promotion, said Kevin Murphy, chief deputy director of Arkansas Community Correction.
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. All would have to qualify for the positions for which they applied.
There also are some 300 positions available with the Arkansas Department of Correction, all within 60 miles of Pine Bluff.
Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth gathered nearly 3,700 signatures on petitions in an effort to persuade Hutchinson to keep the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center in her city. Hollingsworth delivered the petitions to the governor when she, Ferguson and some Pine Bluff aldermen met with him Monday.
"We just needed to lay out to him that they're talking about 138 jobs, but it's so much more than that," Hollingsworth said. "It's 138 families."
Crittenden County Judge Woody Wheeless is just as eager for the governor's decision. He expressed confidence Thursday that the move will go through on the basis of what he's hearing from Arkansas Community Correction officials.
"I'm still optimistic that it's going to happen, even though there's so much fighting to try to keep it [in Pine Bluff]," Wheeless said.
The state Board of Corrections has statutory authority to close and open facilities, but the personnel subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council would have to approve salaries for interim personnel who would be needed during the transition, Flowers said.
The state has already budgeted $650,000 to go toward replacing the roof of the gym at the Pine Bluff unit. That same amount could be used to retrofit the hospital into a jail and repair some fire and water damage.
Flowers said she doubts $650,000 will cover the cost of adding secure doors and windows and surveillance equipment.
"It's still a prison," she said.
Inmates are spread out among 35 buildings in Pine Bluff; they can be housed under one roof in West Memphis. The hospital, which was built to accommodate 150 patients, can house at least four inmates to a room.
The hospital has been vacant since August of 2014, and the county has been paying about $30,000 to keep the power on and maintain the building and grounds. After having spent upward of $1 million, Wheeless said, the county will pull the plug and let go of its maintenance work April 1.
Wheeless said the county would continue to try to market the hospital if Arkansas Community Corrections doesn't take the hospital and it closes. The last resort would be to tear down the building.
State Desk on 03/25/2016