The fight over Northwest Arkansas' capacity for incarcerating people has intensified in recent days. The questions over how to approach the subject are varied.
Are people in the mood to pay the taxes necessary to build larger and more complex jails? Well, nobody will ever be thrilled with taxes, but we do want the taxes we pay to deliver the services our communities need. Officials in both Benton and Washington counties have made convincing cases that the status quo is not an option as Northwest Arkansas's population continues.
Criminal justice requires a capacity to punish people for bad acts. Nobody that I know of argues jails aren't necessary. But advocates for a different approach, namely the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition, make the argument that both counties' jails are big enough now and dealing with criminal offenders or those accused of crimes has to change.
The sheriffs of Benton and Washington counties, as well as some other civic leaders, disagree. They suggest adequate jail space is a foundation of criminal justice and that both counties have limped along long enough, letting people who should be in jail go too soon. The more people involved in crime become convinced time in jail isn't likely, the less they will be motivated to pursue seriously engage in alternative sentencing programs.
Last Thursday, Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder amped up the jail debate by announcing he will ask the Quorum Court to let the county's voters decide on a $50 million to $60 million expansion. Helder has about six months before he leaves office. He said leaving office without a solution to what's become chronic overcrowding is something he can't do "in good conscience." The Quorum Court and other county leaders haven't moved the needle, after years of Helder trying to convince them of the need. He's gotten lots of talk, but very little action.
The Justice Reform Coalition folks, namely Sarah Moore and future Quorum Court member Beth Coger, argues the counties should devote money -- they say far less than jail expansion will cost -- to alternatives that get at the root of criminal behaviors: mental health care, treatment of addictions and the like. They also suggest court programs should more closely monitor the accused so they're less likely miss court hearings, an error that puts plenty of people in jail.
In response to Helder, they called their own press conference Friday, announcing their effort to get the people of both counties to pressure their quorum courts to put a five-year moratorium on any addition of jail beds.
A five-year moratorium likely means eight or nine years before any new jail space could be built. Construction takes a while. Can Washington and Benton counties wait that long? Advocates for expansion, including the two county sheriff's obligated to operate the jails in a constitutional manner, say the time for expansion is past.
Incarceration is tearing families apart and neither county needs more "cages to lock up poor and disadvantaged people," Coger said. Despite a lot of talk over the last four years, county and criminal justice officials have failed to implement alternatives to jail that have worked in other places, Moore said.
I'm not sure how a five-year moratorium would work. Today's quorum court members cannot legally bind the actions of future quorum courts, so it might just be asking for personal commitments from individual elected officials. Blind "no tax increase" commitments from elected officials aren't good representative government, so I'm not sure a blind five-year moratorium is, either. Circumstances can change within five years.
Helder's approach -- let the people decide -- is pretty tough to argue against in either county. The people, after all, have to live with the criminal justice system's successes and its failures in the form of more or less crime.