Sebastian County jail inmate cap to be discussed

FORT SMITH -- The Sebastian County jail may decrease the number of inmates it can hold at one time after further discussions by stakeholders in the county criminal justice system.

The Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee approved a motion by County Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor to form a subcommittee to determine potential policies and procedures to maintain a cap for the 356-bed jail during its meeting Thursday. The subcommittee will meet Wednesday.

The coordinating committee was established by the Quorum Court in August 2017 to find ways to reduce the jail population and improve the justice system.

Among the solutions the committee has devised are drug, veterans and mental health courts; a crisis stabilization unit; alternative sentencing and diversion programs; special accelerated court dockets; and electronic monitoring and signature bonds for nonviolent felony suspects.

The committee's decision Thursday came after Sheriff Hobe Runion proposed instituting a cap at the jail, along with policies and procedures to decide who's released and who remains in the facility.

Runion wrote in a memo to the committee Aug. 2 he appreciated what the members have been doing to keep the jail population at a manageable level, but the facility has been sitting at about 400 inmates with the covid-19 pandemic still going on. He described how, on Aug. 2, the jail had "several dozen inmates" test positive for covid-19, in addition to another who tested positive and was sent to a hospital with breathing problems.

"The health and safety of the inmates and our staff is what we're risking by allowing the jail population to stay around 400," Runion said. "We need to keep our population around 320 to be able to properly manage the jail during times that are normal, and these are not normal times."

Runion said he didn't believe the jail would have a "major change in the population" without an inmate cap and accompanying policies and procedures. He suggested following this until something else to reduce the population is put in place or a way is found to pay for either a new jail or an expansion of the existing jail.

"The bottom line is it's a finite number of cells that I have," Runion said.

The idea of setting a cap of 300 inmates was brought up during the committee's meeting July 22.

County Judge David Hudson said based on conversations he and Runion have had with the county's architectural team, it would take the county about two years to build a new jail if it started right now and had the money to do so. A remodelling or a similar project for the facility would take about three years.

"So we've got to do something to manage and deal with the population for two to three years regardless of what happens," Hudson said.

Hudson said the committee needs to go on record regarding issues at the jail for a future report to the Quorum Court, as well as plan to do something about them. This includes acknowledging the county can't operate the jail at 400 inmates as Runion described, although Hudson admitted he didn't know how to reduce the population. He stressed the importance of the committee wrapping up an ongoing assessment of the criminal justice system and jail needs.

Hudson also said he believed the county needs a new sales tax to get more money to help operate the criminal justice system and jail. This would provide the money necessary for either a new jail or a remodelling of the current one, along with ongoing operating costs. Such a sales tax would need to be presented to county residents for a vote, which would mean approval by the Quorum Court.

"We put all of the additional general fund and sales tax money into the jail that I think we can continue to do without having some more money, and I think the most appropriate thing would be a sales tax," Hudson said.

Hudson said the jail was built for 260 beds in 1994. This number was increased to 356 beds in 2007 because of an expansion, with 40 being set aside for U.S. Marshals Service inmates to get money for increased operating costs. Additional beds in the facility are dedicated to Arkansas Department of Corrections inmates.

The committee's next meeting is set for Aug. 26.