State can start hunt for corrections site
Project aims to relieve overcrowding
The Arkansas Board of Corrections on Friday authorized the Department of Corrections to begin a site selection process for a community correction center as the agency continues to search for new ways to address overcrowding.
The Board of Corrections approved a memorandum from Department of Corrections Secretary Solomon Graves authorizing him to solicit expressions of interest from communities related to the donation of land.
Graves said the Corrections Department will use the land to construct a community correction center capable of housing between 200 to 300 offenders.
The memorandum presented to the board originally stated the land would be used to construct a medium-security parole violator sanction center, but board member William “Dubs” Byers requested it be changed to allow the prison agency to have flexibility with their plans.
“This allows us to cover all our bases,” he said. “This means it can be turned into a parole center, a sanction center or for regular [prison] population.”
The Department of CorThe
rections is looking for a 5- to 40-acre site that is not prone to flooding which is in close proximity to a hospital and adequate utilities. It also must be located near a sufficient population center for staff recruitment and retention.
The board also approved a request that Graves remove a requirement that the facility not be within 60 miles of an existing correctional facility operated by either the Division of Correction or the Division of Community Correction.
“I don’t think we need to limit ourselves to 60 miles,” Byers said.
Graves told the board his only concern with removing the 60-mile restriction was attempting to staff two prison facilities that are close to each other.
“I don’t think we need to create the possibility, on paper, of a situation where we are competing against ourselves,” he said. “Because we are treading water in many places.”
Byers said that while his No. 1 concern is also the potential workforce, one area might have the population to handle two facilities.
“Maybe that workforce exists within the 60 miles of another facility,” he said. “I will be looking at workforce as the number one priority because we have shot ourselves in the foot in the past not considering the workforce when building facilities.”
Graves also mentioned he wanted a new facility built in a place where the prison system isn’t currently located to provide services, such as probation and parole, in areas where such services are currently unavailable.
“This would allow us to not drain staff from our current recruiting efforts,” he said.
Byers said he understood this philosophy as well, but added that he didn’t want to limit the agency to only places outside the 60-mile radius just in case there was an area that could support two facilities.
Also on Friday, the board approved allowing the Division of Corrections to proceed with negotiations for a guaranteed maximum price to build out the White River Correctional Center with CDI Contractors.
Documents provided at the meeting indicated that CDI Contractors believes the project budget will be around $10 million.
Prison expansion has come up repeatedly over the past year, with several legislators calling on the General Assembly to use some of the state’s recent $1.6 billion surplus to build another facility.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections issued a public notice for submissions earlier this month for communities interested in donating land for the construction of a new maximum-security prison facility that will house 1,000 inmates.
The new facility is expected to benefit the local economy where it is built by bringing in 370 employees with an annual payroll of approximately $21,000,000.
The Board of Corrections will also create three committees that will conduct studies into various topics surrounding prison expansion. The move came after Graves told board members expansion of the North Central Unit and the proposed construction of a new 1,000-bed prison facility wouldn’t adequately address future needs.
Graves said recent projects show that if the inmate population continues to grow by 1.3% annually, the correction system will need an additional 2,200 beds by 2032. The system currently has 14,640 beds. Community Corrections maintains another 1,343 beds.
Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin, who was elected attorney general in the general election, emphasized during his recent campaign the need for stricter parole and probation guidelines, a new prison and a revamped parole system to fight rising crime across the state. He said if elected he would work with legislators to get a new prison facility built.
State Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, R-Paragould, and Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, said Griffin and state legislators have discussed Griffin’s ideas for criminal justice reform and that announcements are expected in the coming weeks.