FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County Judge Patrick Deakins has ordered the Washington County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee to suspend all further meetings because all the members’ terms have expired.
The committee was formed to examine ways to reduce crowding at the Washington County Detention Center.
Committee members voted unanimously in late September to ask the Quorum Court to pay for a $200,000 pretrial services program to help reduce crowding in the jail. That proposal was to be brought to the Quorum Court’s Finance and Budget meeting in November.
The committee also has been considering programs such as a mental health court, modeled after the state’s drug court program, and expanded pretrial services meant to keep people out of jail while awaiting trial. The county has received a $550,000 federal grant to set up and begin operating a mental health court.
In a letter to Matt Durrett, prosecuting attorney and co-chairman of the committee, Deakins said members of the committee are limited to two consecutive three-year terms. Deakins said he stumbled across the information as part of his background research on the committee.
“This leads me to determine that all members are outside of their statutory terms of service,” according to the letter.
Deakins goes on to say he believes the committee is now absent of legal members subject to appointment by the county judge’s office.
“All CJCC meetings planned or scheduled need to be suspended until further notice as we consider the future of the group and new appointments can be made,” according to the letter. “I want this to be a very methodical and deliberative process, so I foresee that taking some time.”
It is clear the group’s membership has expired, Deakins said in a follow-up email Monday.
“Of course I am obligated to make sure that we operate within the letter of the law,” Deakins said. “I felt it was only prudent to take some time and make sure we are moving forward appropriately.”
Meanwhile, Deakins is going forward with a $20 million plan to expand the jail. The county is using American Rescue Plan Act money to pay for the addition.
“We hope to have a new construction manager by the end of this month, have new bid packages out by the end of October and be turning dirt by the end of the year,” he said in late September. “That’s an aggressive timeline, but it’s one we think we can make happen.”
The expansion plan was approved by the Quorum Court in December after voters rejected a $100 million jail expansion plan and a sales tax increase to pay for it in the November general election.
The jail has a design capacity of just over 700 beds. The population has exceeded 800 several times, with detainees sleeping on mats on the floor.
Deakins said he knows the decision on the coordinating committee will inevitably open up discussion about its future.
“I can share that when coming into office, I had high hopes for what this group could accomplish. There are a multitude of common sense solutions that have been identified for the group to work toward,” he said.
“However, I don’t think there is anyone that can defend the lack of both consensus and solutions that have been produced over the years. The culmination of all this being the group’s poorly researched sole work product being a proposal advocating more dangerous criminals be released from our jail and that the taxpayers be on the hook for administering that program. As a taxpayer in Washington County, one has to laugh to keep from crying.”
Deakins said realistic and reasonable solutions such as the establishment of a mental health court, a quarantine unit at the jail, establishment of a veterans’ pod at the jail and others seem to be coming from sources outside the committee.
Beth Coger, justice of the peace for District 9, sent Deakins a letter Monday taking him to task for suspending the committee rather than reaching out to current judges, correction officials, the prosecuting attorney and others to ask if they want to continue serving on the committee.
Coger said that if they do, then Deakins could bring those names forward at Thursday’s full Quorum Court meeting to be confirmed. If there are still vacancies, they can be filled and voted on at the following meeting, she said.
“If the committee member appointments have expired, then let’s get them reappointed and/or new members added,” Coger wrote. “That should be our focus. Not demobilization of the committee.”
“The CJCC has worked diligently for the last three years, despite being hindered by staffing and lack of funding,” Coger continued. “They are now ready to move forward with a real pretrial services program, which was unanimously approved by the board at its last meeting.”
Durrett said the news is a setback for the committee, and it will probably take some time to resolve the issue.
“The ordinance was passed in September 2017. Therefore, it appears that all of the current members have exceeded that limit. I notified the members of the committee of this,” Durrett said. “Because of the concerns that the committee might be operating outside of the authorization provided by the quorum court, we are most likely going to wait until the situation can be figured out before meeting again.”
On Monday, Durrett said the terms of the members of the committee are three years so even if someone was appointed in 2020, his term has expired.
“It may be that the county judge has to appoint a whole new board,” Durrett said. “We’re having to take a step back to see where we are and assess everything to see if there is anyone who still, based on that ordinance, has eligibility to serve. It may be that someone has served only one term so they could be re-appointed. But, the fact remains that everybody’s terms have expired.”
Circuit Judge Cristi Beaumont told fellow committee members in September the proposal it voted to send the Quorum Court included two case manager positions, at a cost of about $60,000 each. Beaumont estimated the total cost at $200,000, including office supplies and equipment, setting up and managing a database and other costs related to services for the detainees in the program.
Beaumont told the group the pretrial services program would begin with an assessment of detainees who might be qualified when they are brought to the jail. With two case managers, Beaumont said, the program should be able to accommodate at least 80 participants at a time. The group agreed some detainees, including those arrested for violent felony offenses and sex offenses, wouldn’t be considered.
Eligible detainees would be given a score based on their initial assessment that would place them in categories indicating their risk of failing to appear for court or committing new offenses.
The assessment includes information about the detainee’s age, the nature of the offense, other pending charges, prior convictions and sentences and prior failures to appear. That score would be used to determine the level of supervision and restrictions each individual would be asked to agree to in the voluntary program.
The Washington County Democratic Party blasted the decision in its weekly newsletter Sunday.
The group said the move is offensive to those who have served on the committee since November 2020, and “to those of us in the community who have advocated so fiercely, and who have worked so hard to reform our justice system,” the newsletter read.
Democrats are urging their members to contact Deakins and other county officials and advocate for the current committee to continue their work.