FAYETTEVILLE -- State inspection reports for county jails in Northwest Arkansas make note of crowding and the need for more space, but some say alternatives to bigger jails have yet to be explored.
County officials in both Benton and Washington counties are working to put jail expansion projects on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
In Benton County, the Quorum Court is eyeing a jail expansion project with an estimated cost of about $206.2 million. The proposal would have a bond issue paid for through a temporary one-eighth percent sales tax, and a permanent 0.25% sales tax would be devoted to operating and maintenance costs.
Sheriff Shawn Holloway told justices of the peace the jail's average weekly population has been over the maximum allowed by jail standards since Sept. 21. The jail averages 713 detainees, with a maximum capacity of 669, he said. The proposed expansion would add about 1,240 additional beds.
In Washington County, the justices of the peace are working on two jail expansion projects.
Jim Langford with Spirit Architecture told the justices of the peace in a June meeting if the county chooses to pursue a expansion to add from 1,000 to 1,500 beds that would require from 160,000 to 170,000 square feet of new space. The jail currently has 710 beds. Langford said in 2018 the cost per square foot was put at $400, and he would now put it around $600 per square foot.
Washington County's Quorum Court has already approved design work on a covid-related expansion separate from the larger expansion project.
The covid-related proposal would add 232 beds and space for quarantining and isolating detainees for health reasons; for the intake, medical and courts areas; and storage and administrative purposes. That proposed expansion would cost about $20 million if approved by the Quorum Court and take two to three years to complete.
Washington County's jail is generally considered to be at capacity when about 80% of the beds are occupied due to legal requirements for separating detainee classifications.
Both counties have received their 2022 jail inspection reports from the state Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee. The Review Committee visits and inspects detention facilities in Arkansas each year and notes the physical conditions, staffing levels, space available for detainees and other areas to make sure they meet minimum standards.
For Washington County, the report said the average daily population for the jail was 735. For women, the report said the jail can hold up to 135 detainees and the average was 94. For men, the report said, the jail can hold up to 575 detainees and the average daily population was 641. On a typical day, the report noted, nearly all of the detainees are held on felony charges and about 85% of those being held are pretrial detainees.
"Due to lack of space, the Detention Center stays in a near-constant state of being overpopulated," the Review Committee reported. "In terms of 2022, for some 5-10 days the jail population was near 787."
The Review Committee reported the jail averaged about 900 bookings per month and said the facility needs space for special housing, observation, quarantine and for the general population. The report also noted a need for additional storage and employee workspace. On the day of the inspection -- April 13 -- the report noted 129 detainees were sleeping on mats on the floor due to the lack of bed space. To manage the population, the committee said the jail released 306 detainees in March 2022 alone.
Combined with a staff shortage of about 40 employees, the Review Committee said the conditions at the jail raised questions about public safety, public health, employee safety, inmate safety, visitor safety and other general safety concerns including wellness of occupant, risk mitigation activity and emergency response readiness.
The committee inspected the Benton County Jail on April 14 and found many of the same problems. The jail has a design capacity of 669 beds and an operating capacity of around 585 detainees but reported an average daily population of 705. The jail population on one day in 2022 was around 750. Typically, about 60% of the detainees are pretrial felony prisoners. The report found the same needs for more space for general housing, housing for special needs inmates, food and medical services and support programs for detainees.
Other area jails have different problems and needs, according to the inspection reports. Sebastian County also has had chronic crowding, and county officials there have been discussing a possible expansion project. The county also has an active Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee and has taken steps to control the jail population, including putting a cap on the number of detainees, opening a mental health court and adopting a text message-notification service to advise detainees of court dates after their release from the jail.
In Crawford County, the county jail is relatively new, opening in 2016 according to the inspection report. The 307-bed jail was inspected on Dec. 10 and for the most recent year had an average daily population of 265 detainees. The highest daily population noted was 309 detainees.
Madison County has had a 24-hour holding facility only since 2014. The county jail failed to meet state standards, and when voters rejected a plan to improve the jail it was limited to use as a holding facility. Madison County initially contracted with Washington County to house its prisoners, but that agreement ended in December; Madison County now works with several other counties to house prisoners. On a typical day, according to the inspection report, Madison County has 35 to 40 detainees in four or five other county jails.
Jay Cantrell, chief deputy with the Washington County sheriff's office, said the jail, which was built in 2004, has been chronically crowded for the past several years. He said the crowded conditions create health and safety risks for both detainees and staff and leave the county open to lawsuits and liability claims.
"It's not a healthy environment for detainees or the staff," Cantrell said. "We're seeing more violence and assaults in the workplace are becoming much more prevalent with the higher numbers. It seems almost like we're seeing a different class of inmates that we're housing. They have no regard for authority, some of them, and we're in such a crowded state that we have no place to segregate them if they don't follow the rules. It's frustrating. We're trying to maintain order and keep everybody safe but some of them know we can't really do anything to them and they just thumb their noses at the staff."
Jon Comstock is a Rogers attorney and former circuit court judge in Benton County. Comstock is also a member of the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition, a group that has lobbied county officials to delay any jail construction and try alternatives to incarceration first.
Comstock said he read through the jail inspection reports and said his initial reaction was "It's all fluff."
"They seem to be falling all over themselves to say what the sheriffs want them to say, which is that we need more jail space," Comstock said. "They never say to the sheriff 'Are you doing anything to reduce the need for beds?'"
Comstock said the reports mention the counties have Criminal Justice Coordinating Committees in place but do not address the work of the committees or the alternatives to incarceration recommended to Washington County in a report done by the National Center for State Courts.
The study recommended a range of alternatives from improvement of pretrial services, consideration of lowering the bond amounts being set by the court, alternative courts, such as a mental health court to divert people away from the criminal justice system and services to help people avoid missing court dates and being subject to arrest for failure to appear.
Comstock said none of those alternatives have been tried in either Benton or Washington county. He said with construction time for any jail expansion put at about three years, the focus on adding jail space leave the counties facing the same problem while ignoring solutions that could be implemented in less time and at less cost.
"We could get a robust pretrial services program up and running in six months for around $500,000," he said. "A mental health court could be put in place in a year's time for less than $1 million. Pretrial detainees are the biggest part of the jail population. We can solve a big part of that problem in less than 30 days by some policy changes. If we can get the prosecuting attorney and the judges on board we can do a review of those pretrial detainees monthly to review their bond amounts and see which of them we can release right now. We need to have people assigned to conduct interviews and assessments. The judges and prosecutors don't have time to do that now. That takes time but it's the kind of commitment we need."
"With very little investment they could solve their jail overcrowding," Comstock said. "But the mindset is we've got people sleeping on the floor, so we've got to have this jail now. But the first bed won't be available for three years."