Corrections center

Or, in the real world, another prison

“It was an immense and solid building, erected at vast expense. I could not help thinking, as we approached the gate, what an uproar would have been made in the country if any deluded man had proposed to spend one-half the money it had cost on the erection of an industrial school for the young, or a house of refuge for the deserving old.”

—David Copperfield, on approaching a prison

YES, WELL, Mr. Copperfield, we have plenty of schools for the young, too. And the high schools in Arkansas circa 2022 are going for $100 million a shot.

There will be opposition to new prisons in this country, even in this part of the country. There will be those who think the system is unfair (it can be) and that more effort should be made on preventing crime in the first place (there should be).

Then we look at the newspaper each day. And think that, as much as we’d druther spend tax dollars on schools and housing for the deserving old, some of these cats we don’t want to see as we walk to our cars after dark.

Last week, the state’s Board of Corrections authorized the Department of Corrections to begin another “site selecting process” for a community corrections center. (How many corrections is that?)

A “community corrections center” is euphemism for “prison.” Oh, sure, some inmates will come out better people— the state offers programs inside to encourage that—but normally prison isn’t the best place to get corrected.

The state, however, needs the beds. During the late election season, we asked candidates in endorsement meetings if they’d support new prisons for Arkansas. Not many said no.

The law-and-order conservatives fully supported more beds, but even most progressives admitted to the need (even if they’d preface their support with a desire to fight crime with a more “holistic” approach, starting in pre-K).

So now the state looks around. And starts the process of asking more communities if they’d like to have a prison, and the jobs that come with one. Solomon Graves, secretary of the state Corrections department, said this new prison might hold between 200 and 300 offenders.

According to the story in this newspaper: The department “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.”

This isn’t the first move made by the state to address prison overcrowding.

Earlier this month, the state issued a public notice for that new 1,000-inmate prison, which should take a lot of the burden off local jails. Then there’s the idea to expand current prisons.

The state is growing. So is the prison population. And those working in the system say they’re running out of beds, which means sometimes really bad folks get put on the streets too soon.

Prisons aren’t the stuff of Shangri-La. Sometimes they are the stuff of Charles Dickens. But the state is going to need the space.

For proof, just read the newspaper.