Proposal for regional private jail to get look

A proposed contract ushering in the return of private adult correctional institutions to Arkansas after a nearly two-decade absence will be considered by the state Board of Corrections on Thursday, as the state grapples with a lack of bed space at jails and prisons.

The agenda for the meeting, released Tuesday, includes the language for a contract to house as many as 500 state inmates at a proposed facility to be built in either Drew or Bradley counties in south Arkansas. The facility would be operated by LaSalle Corrections, based in Ruston, La.

The outline is largely similar to a plan for a regional jail discussed by county officials in southeast Arkansas for the past several years. In 2017, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that such a facility, while mostly filled with state inmates, would also house about 100 local offenders awaiting trial.

Talks for the project have been slow-going, however, in part due to the longevity of the contracts the counties would need to sign in order to entice a private company to set up a facility in the state, the newspaper previously reported.

“It’s the closest we’ve ever got to making something happen,” said Benny Magness, chairman of the Board of Corrections.

Under the terms included in the Board of Corrections’ agenda, the state would contract directly with the two counties for a period of 20 years to house state inmates. The counties, separately, would contract with LaSalle to operate the facility.

The state would pay the counties $44 a day to house each inmate, less than three-quarters the average $61.25 cost per inmate per day at state prisons.

Neither the county judge of Drew County, Robert Akin, or Bradley County, Klay McKinney, could be reached Tuesday to explain the terms between their counties and LaSalle or whether the contract has been signed. The newspaper also was unable to learn how much the proposed facility will cost or how long it will take to build.

State Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, a long-time supporter of the project from Bradley County, said he was unaware of any valid contract, though he was aware that the state’s proposed contract was placed on the Board of Corrections agenda.

Magness, the board chairman, said he assumed the counties and LaSalle “have reached some sort of agreement” in order for the state’s end of the deal to be written up in a contract.

A message left with LaSalle Corrections was not returned.

The need for a regional jail, according to prison and local officials, is driven by growth in the state prison population, as well as the backlog of state inmates being held in county jails.

The Arkansas Department of Corrections housed an average of 15,628 prisoners in July, more than 500 people above its official capacity. An additional 1,466 state inmates, on average, were held in county jails.

In the state’s smaller counties, local sheriffs often struggle finding room for offenders in their facilities. In Bradley County, there is no jail, and offenders must be sent to be housed in nearby jails at a cost to the county.

The last company to operate adult prisons in Arkansas, Wackenhut Corrections Corp., left the state in 2001, citing the high costs of running two facilities in Newport. At the time, however, the Board of Corrections was weighing whether or not to retake control of the prisons over concerns that the company had understaffed the units and left prisoners living in unsanitary conditions.

“We have been down the road of having private lockups in the state and we got rid of them because they did not work in any way the state wanted its name attached to,” said state Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, an opponent of the project. She’s also a member and former chairman of the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Subcommittee on Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions.

While there are no private lockups in the state for adult prisoners, in 2015 the then-Department of Correction began contracting with the LaSalle-operated Bowie County Jail in Texas to house about 300 state inmates. The state pays about $36 per inmate per day to hold people in Texas, according to prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler.

If a regional jail opens in southeast Arkansas, Magness said, he anticipates ending the state’s contract with Bowie County, and moving the prisoners held there to the new LaSalle facility in the state, along with about 150 additional state prisoners. The final 50 beds allotted to the state, he said, would likely go to offenders under the supervision of the Division of Community Correction. Any of those changes, Magness said, would be subject to board approval. (The Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction are both under the umbrella agency of the Department of Corrections.)

In addition, the text of the contract on the board’s agenda states that its terms are “subject to the advice and consent of the Legislative Council.”

Magness confirmed Tuesday that lawmakers would have to review the plan.

Elliott said she was shocked to learn that the contract had been included on the agenda, after having grilled prison officials last year about “rumors” of the project’s existence. Since then, she had not heard much, she said.

Wardlaw, a co-chairman of the Legislative Council, said he was told last week that the Board of Corrections would consider the project.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson is in favor of the project, according to spokesman J.R. Davis. Davis said the governor has “always supported the concept of a regional jail pilot.”

The Board of Corrections meeting to consider the contract will be held Thursday at the Arkansas Correctional School offices in Pine Bluff.