Construction on the new jail in Newton County wrapped up recently.
“It’s ready,” Sheriff Keith Slape said. “It’s got the beds. It’s got the monitors.”
Just one thing is missing: Inmates.
That’s because the county doesn’t have enough money to operate the new jail.It’s not booking in prisoners anytime soon, Slape said.
In 2008, county voters approved a half-percent sales tax to pay for construction of a new jail but turned down an accompanying tax that would have paid for its operation.
On Aug. 6, the Newton County Quorum Court approved placing a threefourths percent sales tax question on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
All of the proceeds of the special tax, estimated to be $270,000 annually, would fund the operations of the jail, which was built using the metal shell of a building next to the former jail in Jasper that was built in 1904.
Since shutting down the old jail July 1, 2009, the county has been transferring its prisoners to the Boone County jail in Harrison, about 20 miles away.
A similar situation occurred in late 2009 in Little River County in southwest Arkansas. The state’s jail standards committee or-dered the county to shut down its jail because it was considered inadequate.
The county has been sending its inmates south to the Bi-State Justice Building jail in Texarkana and to the Lafayette County jail in Lewisville, said County Judge Clayton Castleman.
The county pays $35-42 a day to place its inmates in those jails, Castleman said.
Voters have rejected two sales tax proposals in recent years to build a new jail in the county, Castleman said, so officials went ahead with a $1.2 million renovation plan of the now-38-year-old facility that was shut down. They’ll use a combination of county reserves and a short-term loan to pay for the project, he said.
“We will hopefully have our jail back open in January or February,” he said.
Ronnie Baldwin, executive director of the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association, said a handful of the state’s 75 counties don’t operate jails. Lee and Chicot counties in the Arkansas River Delta and Grant County in central Arkansas don’t have jails, Baldwin said.
Chicot County Sheriff Ronnie Nichols said he either transports prisoners to the Ashley County jail in Hamburg or pays the county’s Lake Village city jail to house inmates.
Ashley County adjoins Chicot to the west. The jail is 32 miles from his office in Lake Village. His office pays $30 a day to house prisoners in other jails, he said.
“We haven’t had a jail since the ’80s,” Nichols said. “It was just old and got to cost us too much [to maintain]. For us, it’s just as cheap to house them in other locations.”
Newton County pays Boone County $35 a day to house its inmates, Slape said. Newton County has paid Boone County an average of about $5,000 a month since July 2009, he said.
Slape said he’s not confident that voters will approve the sales tax.
“They’re conservative, and it’s a tough economy right now,” he said. “It’s another hurdle to clear. We’re used to it.”
Newton County Judge Warren Campbell agreed, adding that people are uncertain about adding to their sales taxes.
“I think that’s going to make it kind of rough, getting it passed,” he said.
It’s been a bumpy road toward a new jail in the rural Northwest Arkansas county of 8,300 residents.
The old jail, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, was found to be unsafe by the Arkansas Criminal Detention Facility Review Committee in 2008, the same year two inmates committed suicide inside its rock walls.
County officials issued $1.55 million in construction bonds in 2009 that are being paid for with the half-percent sales tax.
The county spent about $275,000 to issue the bonds and design a building for a different site before determining that site was unsuitable. It then bought the building near the old jail for $250,000.
County officials broke ground on the jail project in December after choosing Harrison-based Davis Construction, whose bid was $840,000.
The county had a $65,000 grant from the state, which when added to the remaining bond money, brought the total of project fund to $1.09 million.
The final construction cost hasn’t been determined, but it’s expected to be about $1 million, Slape said.
If the sales tax in Newton County is approved, he’ll add 13 positions to his current staff of 15, he said. The old jail housed six inmates, while the new 5,172-square-foot jail can house about 30, Slape said.
He said being a sheriff without a jail is “bittersweet.” While he longs to operate a jail again, he said there is an upside to not having a place to house prisoners.
“You know how many federal lawsuits I’ve had filed against me since I haven’t had a jail? Zero,” he said. “Absolutely none.”
Baldwin, a retired sheriff of Cross County in east Arkansas, and Nichols, the sheriff in Chicot County, echoed Slape’s sentiment.
“I kind of envy a sheriff who doesn’t operate a jail,” Baldwin said. “That’s where a majority of your liabilities lie.”
Nichols said, “I’m glad not to have a jail. Less lawsuits for me. Less headache.” To contact this reporter: