JPs receive update about regional jails

FORT SMITH — County Judge David Hudson briefed the Quorum Court on regional jails, saying one 600-bed regional jail is going to be built in south Arkansas and operated by the private company LaSalle Corrections.

Drew and Bradley counties agreed to waive competitive bidding and entered into a contract with Ruston, La.-based LaSalle to build the facility. Separately, the state’s Division of Correction has agreed to a contract with the counties to hold up to 500 state prisoners at the new jail. The counties had been negotiating for years, and the state’s Legislative Council reviewed the plan in December.

Hudson said the remaining 100 beds at the regional jail would be allocated for local county use. A regional jail in Sebastian County’s area could affect the Arkansas Department of Corrections inmates whom the county holds in its own jail as they wait for vacant prison beds.

“If our county contracted to have beds in a regional jail, we would commit to the contracted amount,” Hudson said. “For example, if Sebastian County contracted for 20 beds based upon the state reimbursement that we get to hold ADC inmates waiting for a prison bed, that would be $210,000 a year. The revenue for this contract, based on that assumption, would come from the state passed through the county to the regional jail, and based on that approach, if that worked out, it would be a revenue-neutral approach.”

Twenty beds, according to Hudson, is $210,000 a year based on the current rate of $30 per person per day that Sebastian County gets to hold state prisoners. The county reduced the anticipated revenue from the Arkansas Department of Corrections in the 2020 county budget by $210,000 in order to allow those 20 beds to be moved out of the jail and to not rely on that funding. However, that revenue was offset in the 2020 budget by the funds the county gets to hold inmates from the U.S. Marshals Service, the rate of which is $62 per day.

Hudson said the regional jail could help with the backup of Arkansas Department of Corrections inmates held in county jails.