Data-driven

Will jail solutions come in 2024?

Access to information is always important when it comes to state and local government in Arkansas.

Doubt it? Think back to the first half of 2023 when the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act was under attack in the state Legislature. Advocates from a host of ideological backgrounds and political affiliations rose to combat the effort that would have weakened the public’s right to know. People indeed care a great deal about their capacity to monitor and evaluate the performance of public officials in the conduct of their public responsibilities.

Beyond that, access to more, rather than less, information usually leads to a greater understanding. When we heard Washington County leaders had revamped the detention information on the county jail website, for a moment we were a little nervous. Checking out the web listings (including photos) of people booked into the county jail is a popular, almost daily activity for some in the community.

Some of it is just nosiness: Did anyone I know get arrested yesterday? Others use the listings as a kind of spitball barometer for crime within Washington County and its cities. As a matter of public policy, there’s not much on the local level more important than public safety.

People want to know, so was Washington County about to foul that up? No, they kept those listings there for all to see, and that’s a good thing.

But the county did add a few pie charts and graphs based on the county’s data. It primarily reflects that there are lot of pretrial defendants — people who haven’t been convicted yet of any crime — who remain behind bars. For some, that seems to be the biggest factor in Washington County’s ongoing experiences of overcrowding at the jail.

The data hint at the possibility that the courts are too slow in resolving cases. It also could be showing that alternatives to jail for pretrial detainees aren’t being utilized enough. It could mean pretrial bonds are excessively high, leaving people without money stuck in jail primarily because they can’t afford bail.

All of these could be factors. But the data in and of itself doesn’t tell what the solutions are. It might be easy to suggest letting more pretrial detainees go, but how does one guarantee they’ll show up for their court appearances? How does one know whether someone released from jail won’t graduate to a more intense level of crime? If they begin to sense the system doesn’t have the capacity to keep them in jail, will some people just commit additional crimes?

Unfortunately, the efforts to resolve Washington County’s jail woes regressed in 2023. A committee that has spent years looking into the issues moved at a glacial pace and ended up dismantled by the county judge. We’re not quite sure who is leading the charge nowadays to find solutions.

Additional analytical tools may help the public grasp the challenges a bit more, but ultimately, solutions are what people elect representatives to figure out. It’s why sheriffs, criminal court judges, quorum court members and county judges exist — to solve the problems facing the system.

Hopefully, 2024 will give county taxpayers more progress in shoring up their criminal justice system’s capacity to be more efficient and effective. We like pie charts as much as the next nerd, but the solutions will come more from collaboration and a shared commitment to find solutions from everyone involved.