JPs favor hires for jail study
3 firms to advise on crowding cuts
FORT SMITH — The Sebastian County Quorum Court has voted to hire a three-member team of consultants for a 10-month study on how the county should reduce long-term jail crowding.
The Quorum Court approved an appropriation ordinance at Tuesday’s monthly meeting that pulls $133,740 from the general fund’s sales-tax revenue fund to contract with Studio 6 Architects of Fort Smith; TreanorHL of Kansas City, Mo.; and Mark Goldman and Associates of Atlanta to conduct the study.
A letter with the proposal stated that Studio 6 Architects, the former Guest Reddick architecture firm, has done design work in Fort Smith for 100 years; that TreanorHL focuses on detention and justice system planning and design; and that Mark Goldman and Associates is a justice system planner.
In the first of two phases, the team proposes to analyze Sebastian County’s criminal justice system and recommend changes to control the jail-space needs. It also will evaluate the jail and its staffing needs and explore ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
In the second phase, the consultants would develop master plan options for expanding the jail and building a new facility on a new site.
Over the past few years, county officials have considered expanding the jail to add more space for prisoners and even moving the sheriff’s office to a new location so that his office space could be renovated to hold prisoners.
Sheriff Hobe Runion told Quorum Court members that his staff and other county officials know the jail’s problems and have worked to reduce jail overcrowding. A consultants’ study would show due diligence by the county and validate the need for jail expansion or a tax, making it easier for officials to persuade residents to approve them, he said.
The county also will establish a citizens committee to assist in the evaluation process by keeping the Quorum Court and public informed of the study’s developments and helping the Quorum Court consider the options on implementing the study’s recommendations, a memorandum from County Judge David Hudson said.
Sebastian County officials have worked for years to solve its jail crowding problem. The 25-year-old jail has the capacity to hold 356 inmates but its effective capacity, given the need to separate prisoners of different statuses, is about 320.
The jail’s population Tuesday was 365 after several prisoners were transferred to other jails, Runion said. On the day the Sebastian County Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee inspected the jail Nov. 28, the jail population was 407.
A Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee — composed of judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, jail officials, probation and parole officers, mental health professionals and others — has met for more than two years to find ways throughout the criminal justice system to reduce the jail population.
Such ideas have included setting lower bail amounts, ordering home detention, not jailing misdemeanor offenders, seeking a means to speed up handling of criminal court dockets and paying other counties to hold Sebastian County prisoners.
The jail review committee’s inspection report found that the jail did not have sufficient personnel on duty at all times.
The report found other deficiencies, such as some inmates having no sleeping mats; storing items in hallways; problems with plumbing, lighting and climate control; a lack of administrative space; and aging equipment.
The U.S. Department of Justice had overseen conditions at the Sebastian County jail from 2005-17 after several inmate deaths. Hudson said the oversight has resulted in the county being forced to spend more to get the jail into compliance.
That effort has resulted in a $3.3 million increase in annual jail spending, Hudson said, mostly for additional personnel, resulting in a current jail budget of $6.2 million.