Washington County officials say warrant clinic a success

FAYETTEVILLE -- A warrant clinic held Jan. 6 was enough of a success that Washington County officials say they may expand on it in the future, making it a regular part of the criminal justice system.

The Public Defender's Office worked with Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett's Office, with the county's Circuit Court judges and with community volunteers to offer people with outstanding warrants for failure to appear in court a way to resolve their cases without being arrested.

The effort brought more than 70 people to the warrant clinic held Jan. 6 at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Durrett said about 20 people accepted plea agreements and others had their cases reset and the arrest warrants recalled.

Leana Houston, chief deputy with the Public Defender's Office, said work is already underway to repeat the clinic and possibly expand on it.

"I think it was a great start," Houston said Friday. "I've already talked with Matt and with the judges about doing it again."

Houston said the warrant clinic had a number of goals and was successful in reaching many of them.

"We helped over 70 people," she said. "We kept them out of jail, reducing the overcrowding in the jail and reducing the expense to the county of housing those people. It probably saved the county over $1 million if you look at the cost of housing 70 people in the jail for 60 days or more while they go through the courts."

Houston said the clinic benefited those people who had their cases resolved or rescheduled.

"This kept them out of jail," she said. "It let them keep their jobs rather than sitting in the jail. We were able to get them back on the docket or get them a plea agreement."

Durrett said he is also pleased with the result and interested in continuing with similar warrant clinics on a regular basis.

"It went better than we expected," Durrett said. "It was pretty cold that day but there was a line of people waiting to get in when it started. Twenty is not a big number but it's still something to be encouraged about. That's 20 people who aren't sitting down in the jail. Twenty people whose cases are already resolved."

Crowding at the county's jail has been an ongoing problem for several years. The number of detainees was around 800 when the covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020. Efforts to reduce the number of people being brought to the jail and to release some who were incarcerated dropped the population to 400 in mid-2020 but the numbers have been increasing since.

The jail population on Friday was 755, according to information from the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Of those 755 detainees, there were 70 who were being held with only failure to appear charges. Another 270 had failure to appear and other charges.

The jail has a design capacity of 710 beds. With legal requirements to segregate different detainees the operating capacity is about 80% of the design capacity, or less than 600.

Houston said she has begun working on have a similar effort to resolve the cases of detainees with only failure to appear charges and possibly others with minor, non-violent charges.

"Its a question of finding time and getting it organized," she said.

Chief Deputy Jay Cantrell with the Sheriff's Office, said with the new omicron variant of the covid-19 virus still spreading the jail staff is feeling the effects just like the general population. He said a project that could reduce the jail population would help reduce the need to work people overtime and shift people from other duties to working in the jail.

"We'd like to see it happen," Cantrell said.

Sarah Moore, with the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition, was one of the volunteers and the warrant clinic. Moore and others with the Justice Reform Coalition have lobbied county government to look for alternatives to incarceration and to building more jail space as a response to overcrowding at the jail.

Moore said doing more warrant clinics, both for those in the community and for those who are already in the jail, makes sense as part of any effort to reduce overcrowding and relieve the backlog in the courts.

"I think it could make a tremendous impact," she said.

Failure to appear

Under Arkansas law, a person commits the offense of failure to appear if he or she fails to appear without reasonable excuse subsequent to having been cited or summonsed as an accused or lawfully set at liberty upon condition that he or she appear at a specified time, place, and court.

Failure to appear is a Class C felony if the required appearance was in regard to a pending charge or disposition of a felony charge either before or after a determination of guilt of the charge.

Failure to appear is a misdemeanor if the required appearance was in regard to a pending charge or disposition of a misdemeanor charge either before or after a determination of guilt of the charge.

Source: Arkansas Code 5-54-120