BENTONVILLE — A coming expansion of the Benton County jail should provide for the county’s needs for the next several years, County Judge Bob Clinard said.
The county is about to begin a $2 million project to add space for misdemeanor inmates and new secure holding cells for female inmates.
“No one can predict the future, but to the best of our ability to determine, this should last the county for some time,” Clinard said.
The expansion was approved last year after some of the district judges went to the Quorum Court to lobby for space for misdemeanor inmates.
With the limited space available in the jail, misdemeanor inmates were being released on citation, rather than held as intended, they said.
The county did a smaller project last year, remodeling some space to add about 32 beds for misdemeanor inmates only. The project eliminated some office space and training areas that will be restored in the expansion, said Maj. Jeremy Guyll, jail administrator.
District Judge Paul Bridges said the addition for misdemeanor inmates will allow his court to have the full range of sentencing options it needs.
The jail has a capacity of 710 prisoners, but it can’t hold that many and still follow state and federal regulations requiring that inmates be separated according to several criteria, Guyll said.
“In actuality, we’re full at about 650 or 660 inmates,” Guyll said. “It all depends on the nature of the jail population.”
The jail has to separate men and women, Guyll said. Misdemeanor inmates and felons have to be separated. Felony prisoners also have to be separated according to whether they are being held as pretrial prisoners or post-conviction and post-sentencing prisoners.
Sex offenders have to be kept separately, and the jail has to have room to keep inmates in protective custody. Space also is needed for administrative offices and to separate inmates deemed to have behavioral problems. Work-release inmates and “trusty” inmates — those granted special privileges and benefits or accorded certain duties by virtue of having been recognized by sheriff’s officials as being trustworthy — are housed separately. Federal prisoners being held in the jail have to be separated from other inmates.
The expansion will provide space for another 40 to 45 misdemeanor inmates and give the jail six security cells for female inmates, Guyll said. Those cells could hold up to 12 inmates.
The architects who designed the misdemeanor area and women’s cells expansion also were asked to do some preliminary work on the possible addition of another felony pod, Clinard said. The jail was designed for expansion, but two small storage buildings, a helicopter pad and a support building have since been placed in the area left for expansion, he said.
Joel Jones, a justice of the peace and chairman of Benton County’s Public Safety Committee, said an expansion for felony prisoners isn’t a priority.
“They haven’t come to us and told us they’re completely out of felony space,” Jones said. “What they’ve told us is they’re out of space for misdemeanors and they needed the cells for women. The district judges said they use it as a last resort, but they need to have the ability to send someone to jail. It allows them to have their full repertoire of consequences.”
Jones said the justices of the peace should now shift their attention back to a proposed courts facility. County officials have discussed options for a new building or an expansion of the downtown facilities for the past few years.
A report on the county’s needs and the feasibility of locations in downtown Bentonville or on county property on Southwest 14th Street should be done by the end of May, Clinard said.
“I think that’s our next priority,” Jones said.