Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Justice system, jail needs study revived by JPs
FORT SMITH — The Sebastian County Quorum Court moved to resurrect a canceled criminal justice system and jail needs study earlier this month, which could lead to a jail expansion or construction project.
Justices of the peace voted March 15 to approve reactivating the completion of the study.
This came with a focus on the preliminary design of both an expanded jail and a new jail, which includes analysis of staffing and operating costs, in addition to projected construction cost based on an earlier analysis of jail beds needed at the jail, a total of 500.
The plan also called for holding $10 million of the county’s American Rescue Plan covid-19 relief money for the anticipated jail capital construction and hiring a consultant to help use the rest of the money, about $14 million. The consultant will be paid using the $ 14 million.
County Judge David Hudson recommended this plan to the Quorum Court. Jeff Turner, county administrator, confirmed Thursday it’s meant to help facilitate the development of a plan to address crowding at the jail while also providing clarification on how to spend the county’s American Rescue Plan money.
A TALE OF TWO STUDIES
The Sebastian County jail has been dealing with crowding for years. It was built for 260 beds in 1994, although an expansion in 2007 increased this number to 356. Forty of the beds were set aside for U.S. Marshals Service inmates to obtain necessary money to cover increased operating costs while other beds are dedicated to Arkansas Department of Corrections inmates.
The Quorum Court approved the contract for the jail study, which involved the architecture firm TreanorHL, Studio 6 Architects and criminal justice planning consultants Mark Goldman and Associates, in 2018.
It voted to cancel the study’s second phase Sept. 21 after the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, a group examining ways to reduce the jail population and improve the criminal justice system, recommended it delay its earlier decision to
proceed to this phase. This was meant to give the committee more time to determine the effectiveness of justice system policy changes it implemented, or planned to implement, in reducing the jail population, which came from the first phase.
Turner said the calculation of the current jail needing 500 beds also originated with the first phase.
“Phase I was specifically trying to determine how many beds we did need and if we were able to eliminate any of enough of those numbers based on what our policies were and what programs we had,” Turner said. “And even with all of that, that’s where that number still came from.”
Phase II will provide details on what the county could do to add beds to the jail and the costs to build a new jail, according to Turner. This will include how many more deputies the county would need to staff an expanded jail, as well as how many more or less it would take to operate a larger jail with a better design.
The Quorum Court in September also approved the county going forward with a project with the National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency that’s part of the U.S. Department of Justice and offers jail and justice system assessment technical assistance to jurisdictions considering renovating a jail or building a new one.
Hudson has said this technical assistance project wouldn’t cost the county anything. He told the Quorum Court it had been approved in February.
Sheriff Hobe Runion said he believed the resurrected study and technical assistance project will provide the county clarity on what to do about the jail, something he argued is necessary given its persistent crowding. They will also show residents the county is looking at all possible options to address this problem. An expanded or new facility wouldn’t only provide additional beds for inmates, but more room the Sheriff’s Office needs to operate the jail.
Runion thinks the difficult part of this process will be to decide whether to spend money in expanding a facility nearly 30 years old or start from scratch with a new jail. However, he believes either option would require the county putting a tax before voters in an election to help pay for it.
Gunner DeLay, circuit judge and chairman of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, said Hudson and the Quorum Court have the right as the county’s policymakers to expand the jail or build a new one. Despite this, he believes the measures from the study the committee has implemented have had a positive impact on the jail population by keeping it at a consistent level.
These measures included a 356-person inmate cap at the jail and a text message notification system for court dates for defendants in Sebastian County’s circuit and district courts the committee implemented last year.
Turner said Phase I of the earlier jail study is mostly complete. The county contacted the consultants who were involved about finishing the study after the March 15 meeting.
Hudson said in November the county had about $50,000 to spend on Phase II. It spent about $80,000 on Phase I from 2019 to 2020.
RESCUE PLAN, JAIL PLAN
The county has been allocated $24.8 million in rescue plan money, according to Hudson. This includes $10 million that can be used for general government services in accordance with a rule the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued in January and takes effect April 1, and about $14 million to use under more restrictive guidelines of the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program.
The Quorum Court established a fund within the county’s general fund to track the use of the $10 million Jan. 25.
Hudson told the Quorum Court on March 15 that clarification on how the county will address the crowded jail as a component of its justice system was necessary in establishing priorities and procedures for the expenditure of its American Rescue Plan money.
Holding the $10 million to help address capital needs for a jail facility would be the top priority and first decision to be made, according to Hudson. However, the county has to develop a plan on how to address the jail so it can properly spend its American Rescue Plan money by the Dec. 31, 2026, federal deadline.
“At this time, we do not have an established plan,” Hudson said.
Hudson noted the implementation of the county’s National Institute of Corrections technical assistance project hasn’t been scheduled yet. He said this is due to the U.S. Department of Justice’s travel restrictions stemming from covid-19, which have prevented it from selecting qualified consultants to schedule time to visit Fort Smith and conduct the program. The money for the project needs to be spent by the end of September.
The county understands the scope of work to complete the earlier criminal justice study could be done in April, May and June, according to Hudson. He said it could be possible to follow this with the National Institute of Corrections’ onsite review of the county’s justice system and jail if the institute’s travel restrictions are lifted.
Turner said the U.S. Department of Justice lifted its travel restrictions as of Monday.
Sheriff Hobe Runion said he believed the resurrected study and technical assistance project will provide the county clarity on what to do about the jail.