Jail always to fill up, JPs are told
Official: Upsizing not remedy
HOT SPRINGS — The Garland County jail’s administrator says demand for bed space always will outpace supply, no matter how many housing units are in operation.
Chief Deputy of Corrections Steven Elrod told justices of the peace on Monday that any operational expansion of the 168,000-squarefoot facility would be absorbed in short order.
“It’s just like any other jail in the nation. If you build it they will come,” he said. “We know that opening another housing unit is not what we want to do.”
Voorhis Associates Inc., the Colorado consulting company that completed its review of jail policies and procedures earlier this year, supported Elrod’s statement, concluding that inmate populations rise in proportion to available bed space. The trend has played out at the jail. Since opening in June 2015, its inmate population has risen steadily to a level that has been straining operational capacity since last year.
Inmate counts have been at or over 85% of the 373-inmate capacity allowed by current staff levels and procedures. Overcrowding in the female housing unit forced the adoption of a one-for-one policy in February, requiring one woman to be released for every new woman booked.
The jail has a physical capacity of 499 inmates, according to the consulting company’s March 20 report.
“Studies have shown that in the absence of methods to manage the inmate population, the best indicator of the detention center population is beds available,” the report said. “It is common knowledge that if there are detention center beds available, without a strong population management committee, it’s easy for the system to want to utilize beds.”
Last year’s average daily population of almost 360 exceeded the worst-case scenario Voorhis projected in 2011 by 5%. The report said annual bookings decreased by 20% from 2011 to 2018, but the average length of stay doubled over that time from 10.56 days to 21.20.
“This presents a clear picture of a significant change in the way in which the detention center is being used,” the report said. “People who are booked tend to stay longer. There are a variety of factors that can influence this. In 2011, we indicated that increases in length of stay were the driving forces that would increase [average daily population] and they certainly continue to be so today.”
The report recommended working with courts and prosecutors to reduce incarceration times, a suggestion Elrod said the jail has implemented.
“Our case manager-expediter reviews anybody who’s stagnant,” he said. “By stagnant I mean if you have a failure to appear, and the court date has been set out for six months. If it’s a failure to appear on a misdemeanor charge, six months is more than I think the county is willing to pay for to house a person.
“If there’s anybody in our facility that the cost to hold down is more than the charge they’re in there on, then they need to be released on an ankle monitor.”
The report said the jail has not implemented other population management tools Voorhis recommended in 2011, but policies were adopted last year to check growth. The early-release timeline under the meritorious good-time policy adopted in 2015 was accelerated, crediting misdemeanor offenders with one day of time served for every day of manual labor in service of the state, county or city. Work was previously rewarded with a 10-day reduction in sentence for every 30 days served.
Alternative sentencing also was expanded, with the jail making greater use of electronic monitoring and citations in lieu of confinement.
The report said alternatives to incarceration need to be explored more fully before an operational expansion is considered, concluding that opening one of two unoccupied housing units is unlikely to improve capacity concerns. Jail officials have estimated a $550,000 annual cost to open another unit, an expense that the county said the 0.375% sales tax that supports the jail fund is incapable of sustaining.
The county has said using the roughly $500,000 a year it collects from the state for holding inmates awaiting transfer to the Arkansas Department of Correction or Arkansas Community Correction subsidizes the juvenile detention center, sheriff’s office and prosecuting attorney’s office.
The committee agreed to continue its discussion at future meetings and to recommend the creation of a jail advisory panel comprising representatives from law enforcement, the Quorum Court, criminal-justice system and community.