Detention center impresses committee
The Garland County Detention Center’s top administrator says preliminary reports from a state panel’s audit of the facility earlier this week were more than favorable.
“When all was said and done, they said what we wanted to hear: That the Garland County Detention Center is the model detention center for the state of Arkansas,” Chief Deputy of Corrections Mark Chamberlain told the Garland County Quorum Court following Monday’s surprise visit by the state’s Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee.
The committee, which is appointed by the governor, annually audits county and city detention facilities for compliance with the state’s jail standards.
Committee coordinator Sterling Penix said
the formal report won’t be released for several weeks, but noted that initial impressions of the facility were positive.
“The committee was pleased and impressed with the detention center, its leadership, its direction and related operations,” he said.
Chamberlain said the facility’s performance during the state audit bodes well for the national accreditation he plans on seeking from the American Correctional Association, the only national accrediting body for jails and prisons.
“We knew ( state auditors) were coming, but I didn’t know when,” Chamberlain told the quorum court. “They took a tour of the entire facility, and it went phenomenally well. Mission accomplished thus far.
“We still have a ways to go. We told them about our plans to become nationally accredited, and how we built our policies and procedures around those things. They were very, very impressed.”
Chamberlain said the facility housed 281 inmates at the beginning of the week, a reduction from the close to 300 Sheriff Mike McCormick had said were being held during the first weekend of August. Up to 346 inmates can be housed at current staff levels.
“We’re eight weeks into operation at the new facility, and we’re only 81 higher than what we had at the old facility,” said Chamberlain, referencing the 200 or more inmates the previous detention center held despite being built to accommodate fewer than 90. “It hasn’t skyrocketed up.”
Chamberlain told the quorum court that the deterrent embodied in the 168,000- square foot facility has reduced arrests.
“Bookings are actually down a little from what they were at the old jail,” he said. “That tells you people understand there’s room at the inn. Commit a crime in Garland County, and you’ll get locked up. That was not true eight short weeks ago.
“I know the whole community is proud of the facility, and everybody should be. We got a nice feather in our cap.”
Penix said updates to the state jail standards enacted at the end of last year touch mostly on personnel and operational matters.
“They deal with training and hiring standards for jail officers, requirements for fire preparedness and those types of things,” Penix said.
The standards require written policies for emergency situations, inmate searches, control of door keys and the use of firearms and other security devices. Standards include hourly inmate checks and having female deputies supervise female inmates.