Official hopes to create jail position

FORT SMITH — County Judge David Hudson will recommend Sebastian County hire a criminal justice system planner and establish a community advisory committee to assist public officials in finding a solution to overcrowding in the county jail.

Hudson called a Quorum Court special meeting for 6 p.m. tonight in the Sebastian County Courthouse. If members approve, he said, requests for proposals would be sought for candidates for the planner job.

Under Hudson’s recommendation, the criminal justice system planner would come up with a needs assessment for the jail. The community advisory committee and other officials and community members would work on coming up with a long-term solution to resolve the county’s jail overcrowding problem.

He said he hoped the advisory committee would use a National Institute of Corrections report that sets out phases for planning and implementing improvements to the jail.

The Quorum Court has wrestled for years with jail overcrowding at its 24-yearold jail. Its 356 beds are not enough to keep up with the number of inmates, and the county has not been able to identify an adequate revenue source to operate an expanded jail.

Most recently, Hudson reported to the Quorum Court last month that it would not be possible to cut 3 percent across the board from the general fund budget, as Quorum Court members had asked him to do, to generate the $766,569 a consultant said would be needed to hire 14 more jail employees to adequately operate the jail if the county expanded the inmate capacity.

He also told the Quorum Court last month that he didn’t believe 2018 would be a good year to ask voters to approve a one-eighth percent sales tax to help finance jail improvements because this is an election year and because the Fort Smith School District is asking voters to approve a 5.558-mill property tax increase.

The jail does not generate enough money to cover the cost of expansion. As part of the jail revenue, the county gets $53 per prisoner per day for housing U.S. Marshals Service prisoners, $54 a day per prisoner for housing city misdemeanor prisoners and $30 a day for holding inmates sentenced to the Arkansas Department of Correction and awaiting bed space in state prison.

The Quorum Court gave

The Quorum Court has wrestled for years with jail overcrowding at its 24-year-old jail.

approval last year to a plan to move the sheriff’s office from its offices downtown to the county’s emergency operations center and renovate the sheriff’s office building to hold 106 inmates, most of whom would be classified as lower security.

The county could pay for the estimated $3 million project by committing its sales tax revenue in a capital fund for the next six years, Hudson said. Generating the additional operating revenue has been the obstacle for the county.

A criminal justice coordinating committee composed of judges, the sheriff, police and county officials has been meeting to find ways to reduce the jail population by alternatives to incarceration and diversions such as drug court, veterans court and a crisis stabilization unit. Plans are underway to begin a mental health court this year.