Overall county fund, not jail, got $502,905 for state’s inmates

HOT SPRINGS — More than $500,000 a year Garland County receives for holding state inmates supports general fund operations and not the county jail facility fund, according to a report The Sentinel-Record obtained through an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request.

The March 20 report showed state reimbursement payments are credited to the general fund despite the income being generated by the jail. In addition to the $502,905 in reimbursements for holding state inmates, the general fund also received $40,600 in inmate Social Security benefits last year, according to the report. The county said it collects inmate benefits that are suspended during incarceration.

A lack of revenue was cited during last fall’s county budget hearings as the reason for not opening another housing unit, which the county had considered to ease crowding. Jail officials estimated a $550,000 cost during last fall’s budget hearings to staff, supply and maintain one of the two unoccupied housing units at the 168,000-square-foot facility.

Inmate population has strained operational capacity since last year. According to

the report, the average daily population of 358 in 2018 was 37 percent more than when the $42 million facility opened in 2015. Unexpected growth in female inmate numbers forced the jail to institute a one-forone policy. Since February, one woman has had to be released for every woman who is booked into the jail.

The unit has been closed to women arrested on misdemeanor charges or serving misdemeanor sentences during that time, according to a memo the Garland County sheriff’s office issued in February.

The report from Voorhis Associates Inc., the Colorado criminal justice consulting firm paid $1.2 million to advise the county on the jail’s design and supervision and personnel policies, said housing state inmates is not a profit generator for the jail, even if reimbursement money were credited to the jail fund.

The report said the state pays $30 a day per inmate compared with the $59.10 to $64.71 a day it costs to house inmates at the jail. The report said the county gets $12 a day for female state inmates held at the jail as part of a work-release program.

The state pays counties for inmates who have been sentenced and are awaiting transfer to the Arkansas Department of Correction. Jail officials have said post-adjudicated inmates are being transferred to the Correction Department faster than in previous years, as the jail does not get reimbursed for holding pre-adjudicated inmates.

Darryl Mahoney, county judge of Garland County, said earlier this year that staff retention and recruitment need to improve before the jail can expand operationally. The facility has been unable to fully staff its more than 80 uniformed positions, leading to what the report said was a $1.6 million balance in personnel services from 2016 to 2018.

Personnel savings have kept expenses below recurring revenue from the 0.375 percent sales tax that supports the jail fund, despite budgets from each of the past three years exceeding annual sales tax collections. The report showed $6,689,996 in 2018 expenses against $6,986,581 in sales tax revenue, with an adopted budget of almost $7.4 million. Expenses were a combined $1,745,172 below budget from 2016 to 2018.

Savings notwithstanding, the county has said current spending levels are unsustainable without the general fund subsidizing operations.

The jail fund had a $5,258,041 balance at the end of last year. The supporting sales tax, first collected in April 2013, raised about $11 million before the jail’s opening. About $6 million was drawn against it for expenses that included operating the old jail on Ouachita Avenue during the first half of 2015.

The tax receipts also paid $540,000 of Voorhis’ $1.2 million consulting contract, more than $1 million to outfit and equip the new facility and $1.15 million in 2014 salary and benefits for about 50 employees who were transferred to the jail-fund budget from the general fund-supported sheriff’s office budget.

The county said $38,462 was paid from the jail fund for the report Voorhis issued last month. Among its recommendations were adding positions to manage inmate population and monitor inmate health care and food service contracts. The former position would work with the population management committee, an oversight panel comprising representatives from across the criminal justice spectrum.

The report also recommended the county consider going from 12- to eight-hour shifts for detention deputies.