Garland County ready to shutter juvenile lock-up

Low numbers of detainees, high cost prompt shutdown

HOT SPRINGS — The Garland County Juvenile Detention Center will close its doors effective July 15, since operating the facility with the small number of juveniles being housed there is “really not cost-effective,” Sheriff Mike McCormick said Tuesday.

“The average number there is six overall and last week we were down to one, so physically speaking, it’s just not practical to keep it open,” McCormick said, noting that the closing of juvenile facilities “is a trend statewide. After we shut down, there will only be 11 county juvenile detention centers in the state.”

Much of the decision was “about being a good steward of the taxpayers’ money,” he said, since the budget for the juvenile facility is more than $700,000 a year and “you’re looking at an average of six kids.”

Closing the center “will save the county an estimated $500,000 a year, coming out of the general fund,” he said, which includes the cost of maintaining the building, staffing, payroll and more. He noted that they are required to have a minimum staffing of 10 people total, including four corporals and six detention center deputies, with “at least two on duty at all times.”

McCormick stressed that all the employees will transfer to the adult detention center so “no one is losing their job or their rank or pay or anything.” He noted the staff is “definitely needed” at the adult center, especially the corporals, and the transfer of all the positions was approved Monday night by the Garland County Quorum Court’s Human Resources Committee.

After the closure, juveniles arrested in Garland County who require detention will be transported to other juvenile detention centers outside the county, he said, noting, “we put out for bids and got them back” and will be reviewing them “to make sure we choose the best facility we can.”

Some of the facilities that have responded included Jefferson County, which Garland County has used in the past as needed, and Miller County, among others.

“It’s the same thing the other counties are doing,” he said, “You have 75 counties and only 11 juvenile facilities so the vast majority of counties are holding their juveniles at various other locations.”

In reviewing the proposals, McCormick said, “We want to make sure wherever we go has at least the programs we already have, such as educational school programs, GED classes, and so on. That’s what we have now and we want to make sure we maintain those.”

Other requirements include access to recorded telephone calls every day as long as the juvenile is not on room restriction; drug education classes three times a week; access to a nurse or doctor as needed; access to mental health care as needed; access to the courts through video; and access to local clergy.

The transition is “right around the corner,” McCormick said, noting Chief Deputy of Corrections Steven Elrod and Capt. Belinda Cosgrove “are working hard through all the various aspects. It will be a complicated transition, but we’re confident about it.”

He said the “transporting back and forth for court,” is a major consideration, but “we’re relying pretty heavily on video, not only for court appearances, but for visitation with family members” who can access their relative via their laptop computer or even their phone as needed.

McCormick said in a news release that, “In accordance with applicable state statutes, the adult detention center will be used for purposes of juvenile identification, processing or arranging for release or transfer to an alternative facility as the facility is designed to allow separation by sight and sound from adult inmates.”

Asked about the future of the juvenile detention building, McCormick said that will be up to County Judge Darryl Mahoney and the quorum court to decide.