SPRINGDALE -- Officials want to close the city's jail, hoping misdemeanor inmates housed there will be taken by the Washington County Detention Center.
"We're looking to get out of the jail business," said Melissa Reeves, public relations director for the city.
Adding jail beds
The Washington County Detention Center needs to add about 300 beds in the next few years. That might become more vital should Springdale close its city-run jail. The $20-million-plus detention center project might mean voters would decide on a sales tax increase to fund and run the facility. The county detention center now receives a quarter-cent sales tax.
Source: Staff report
The city plans to build a justice complex. The design phase has started. City leaders hope to pay for the complex, which will house the Police Department, with a 2018 bond issue. The bond also would pay for renovation of the City Administration Building, where the Police Department and jail are now. The building inspection office at 107 Spring St. and community engagement office, across the street from the administration building, would move to the administration building's renovated space.
Wyman Morgan, city administrative and financial services director, estimates Springdale residents will be asked to vote on the bond in February or March next year. The complex and renovation will be among many projects in the bond issue, which also will likely include a new animal shelter, two new fire stations, a northwest park and road improvement, Morgan said.
"Right now, we're estimating we can fund $140 million worth of projects," Morgan said.
The bond would be a continuation of a sales tax the city levied for the first time in 2004, Morgan said.
"That tax was levied as a bond issue to fund $105 million in road improvements," he said.
Washington County Chief Deputy Jay Cantrell said the Sheriff's Office has talked with Police Department officials about taking Springdale's jail inmates. Springdale officials began the discussion, he said.
"For several years now they've hinted around that they'd like to get out of the jail business. They're the only jail in Washington County aside from ours," Cantrell said. "We told them logistically we probably can't absorb your jail with our current manpower and facility's layout."
A Washington County Quorum Court committee recently discussed the need to expand the county jail.
Sheriff Tim Helder said during the meeting closing the Springdale jail could be an opportunity for the county and cities to work together to find other ways to pay for the county jail.
The Springdale jail houses people who have misdemeanor charges. Those who face felony charges go to the county jail.
The city jail has 12 beds and averages eight inmates at any given time, Lt. Jeff Taylor with the Police Department said.
The jail is a short-term facility, which means inmates can be incarcerated up to 60 days from the time of intake, according to Sterling Penix, director of jail standards for the Arkansas Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee.
The review committee found the city jail didn't comply with two state standards in 2015 or 2016. It didn't have an outdoor exercise area or an indoor activity area. The committee found the lack of an outdoor exercise area deprived inmates of natural light the jail is required to provide.
The detoxification room has been used as an indoor activity room for the past two to three months, Taylor said. An outdoor exercise area was built and has been used for a couple weeks, he said.
Nine jailers work in the city jail, and they aren't police officers, Taylor said.
"If the jail is closed we will still have a booking facility, and the current jailers will transition to a transport officer position," Taylor said.
The city pays its jailers a combined $225,000 in base salaries and spends $12,000 on jail supplies, which include uniforms, mattresses, blankets and repair costs. The jail doesn't pay for inmate food, which is supplied by the state. The city pays three employees who monitor community service workers a combined $87,000 in base salaries, Police Chief Mike Peters said.
Many inmates are released early because of lack of space, Peters said.
"Very few people serve their jail time. There's no place to keep them," Peters said. "We've started this community service program, which gives us an alternative to sentencing."
District Judge Jeff Harper said while community service helps clean areas across the city, he would rather those arrested on serious offenses, such as battery or domestic assault, stay in jail rather than be released and put on community service.
The city will not lose community service work if the county's jail takes in Springdale's misdemeanor arrests.
Inmates have been placed on home monitoring because of insufficient jail space, Harper said. He said 301 inmates have been placed on home monitoring so far this year.
More money will be needed for the county's jail to accommodate all the Springdale arrests, Cantrell said.
It will cost at least $20 million to expand the detention center, which might mean asking voters for a sales tax increase, Helder said at the meeting.
The county jail has 710 beds and space is tight, Cantrell said.
"We start getting pretty cramped at 630 inmates, and we're running at 600, so we're feeling the strains," he said.
Conditions become cramped even though not every bed is filled because inmates with different classifications have to be housed apart from one another, such as pretrial inmates separated from convicted inmates, misdemeanor inmates separated from felony inmates and females separated from males.
"We might have a 24-bed cell with 20 people in it because only 20 people fit that classification," Cantrell said.
It costs the county $65 a day for each inmate, Cantrell said.
Fayetteville closed its jail in 2005 and started to send inmates to the county jail. Fayetteville pays the county a one-time $62 fee for every misdemeanor arrest booked into the detention center. Madison County and the U.S. Marshal's Service also have inmates at the county jail and pay $62 a day for each inmate housed.
A quarter-cent sales tax is dedicated to the cost to operate the county jail, but that doesn't cover the operating cost, Cantrell said. The annual operating cost is $14 million, and the tax brings in $9 million a year. The jail supplements the cost by housing federal and state prisoners. The state pays a daily fee of $30 per inmate, Cantrell said.
Springdale likely would have to pay the county to house its inmates, Cantrell said.
"It's more efficient if we do everybody's inmates in the grand scheme of things," he said. "They have to pay their way if it's paying sales tax or a housing fee just like Fayetteville does."
NW News on 06/19/2017