Sebastian County panel backs jail cap at 356 inmates
FORT SMITH — Going forward, the Sebastian County jail should no longer consistently hold more inmates than it has beds, a subcommittee from the Sebastian County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee recommended during a meeting Wednesday.
The panel recommended adopting a 356-inmate cap. The jail has 356 beds.
The subcommittee also recommended that the sheriff’s office notify the county’s district and circuit judges, prosecutor and public defender, as well as the Fort Smith police chief, every weekday that the jail exceeds the cap.
The notification also should include a list of inmates that the sheriff’s office deems could be released on signature bonds and given court dates. The number of inmates on the list would be at least double the number that the jail would need to get the lockup in compliance with the cap.
Drew Smith, county criminal justice coordinator, said the committee will discuss the recommendations at its meeting Thursday.
The Quorum Court established the committee in August 2017 to find ways to reduce the jail population and improve the justice system.
Among the solutions so far are drug, veterans and mental health courts; a crisis stabilization unit; alternative sentencing and diversion programs; special accelerated court dockets; and electronic monitoring and signature bonds for nonviolent felony suspects.
County Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor, who made the original motions on both of the recommendations Wednesday, said Friday that he proposed the second one to protect public safety. It includes three safeguards: the sheriff’s office recommending inmates who can be released based on assessments of risk, the prosecutor providing input on those recommendations and the judges making the final decisions.
Wednesday’s recommendations came after Sheriff Hobe Runion advocated instituting a cap of 320 inmates, along with policies and procedures to decide who is and is not released from the lockup.
The sheriff said keeping the inmate population in check would help the jail operate within its budget.
Runion said Wednesday that the jail should have a cap of 320 inmates. Having 356 inmates entails every bed in the facility being full, meaning that if a prisoner can’t safely be incarcerated with another inmate, there will be people sleeping on mats on the floor.
Runion said although the committee has done a lot to curb the jail population, the lockup could use more bed space.
“I know it’s not popular, but I can’t stay at over 400 indefinitely,” Runion said of the current jail population. “We’re not staffed for 400. The budgets for the food, for the utilities, the washing machines, the kitchens, the medical care that we contract out, all of that is not based on the population that we currently have.”
Runion said he would willingly embrace a cap of 356 inmates if the subcommittee agrees to it.
On Friday, he said if the inmate cap is implemented, it would significantly alleviate stress at the jail. Crowding increases pressure on the jail personnel, who have to work 12-hour shifts in what Runion described as a “hard environment.” It will also lessen stress for the inmates.
“They’re in a jail, and so when you overcrowd it, it seems like there’s a lot more tension, there’s a lot more fights, there’s a lot more assaults,” Runion said. “So I think it’ll help all of that.”