County judge seizes chance to rattle cages

Acouple of weeks ago, Washington County Judge Patrick Deakins struck a defiant tone when discussing his approach to some of the obstacles to solving the county’s persistent jail overcrowding.

It was part of Deakins’ State of the County address. Mayors and county judges often give annual addresses that can emphasize priorities, but they also often become rahrah sessions for whatever programs and policies they favor and want to highlight. Most of the time, there’s more cheerleading than actual news. Deakins’ statement contained some of that, but he also used the moment to formally declare an aggressive stance against a state government he says is shortchanging his county.

He called the criminal justice system “by far the most consequential” of challenges facing the county, decrying the slow pace of the local courts in resolving criminal charges.

In a speech to the Quorum Court tinged with biblical tones, Deakins said, “For years we have been preached to by the state about the partnership we share, but I believe over the years that partnership has been laid bare as a one-way street. We’re reaping the consequences of the seeds we have sown, and it’s past time for us to demand a better harvest for our labor.”

I interviewed Deakins early last week for my Speaking of Arkansas podcast on his stated desire to begin discussions with other Northwest Arkansas leaders about development of a regional jail and his concerns that the local judicial system handles criminal cases too slowly. He cited a lack of adequate state funding for overwhelmed prosecutors and public defenders. Ultimately, failure to adjudicate cases quickly puts a burden on the local jail, for which the county is responsible, he said. Once convicted, felony inmates become the responsibility of the state, but because Arkansas’ prison system lacks enough space, the state inmates back up in county jails. That forces local taxpayers to subsidize the state, since it doesn’t pay enough to cover local jail costs, Deakins said.

Last week, Deakins put some teeth behind his statements. On Thursday, he said he had notified the state Division of Community Corrections that Washington County intends to stop leasing the former Washington County jail at 114 N. College Ave to the state agency in nine months. Maybe.

The facility was Washington County’s jail until 2005 and began housing female state inmates in 2008. It typically holds a little more than 100 women.

The “maybe” part is this: Deakins said he’d try to renegotiate the lease if the state will offer more money to Washington County. The state prisoner backlog in the current county jail, Deakins told reporter Tom Sissom, is a primary motivation in his decision to end the lease. The paltry rate of state reimbursement for backlogged state inmates isn’t adequate to cover the jail’s costs, Deakins has said.

If the state isn’t interested, Washington County can use the older jail to provide more space for its incarceration needs, Deakins said.

It’s an intriguing showdown, as Deakins uses whatever influence he can muster to make his point to the state. I couldn’t help but think of a former Pulaski County sheriff, Tommy Robinson, whose staff in 1981 chained state inmates backed up in his overcrowded county jail to a guard tower at a state prison and left them there. Robinson went on to be elected to Congress.

Will any of this solve jail overcrowding? Not fully. Even if the state pays the county more for the old jail, it’s not likely to be enough to fund a major expansion at the new jail. And I wonder what it will cost, and where the money comes from, if Washington County ends up operating two jails simultaneously.

But Deakins has undoubtedly attracted broader attention to Washington County’s plight.