Detention center plans to open all eight inmate pods
Sheriff Mike Mccormick told the Garland County Quorum Court earlier this month that the more than 90 corrections positions in the county detention center’s $10 million budget are fully staffed, putting the jail on track for its highest retention rate in many years.
“We recognize in part our success has been due to separating employment from toxic employees, maintaining high standards of operations and fostering a professional working environment,” the sheriff’s department said last week.
Full staffing also proceeds from raises justices of the peace approved for detention and enforcement deputies in May, Mccormick said. The new pay table increased starting pay for both to $47,770.
Starting pay for enforcement deputies paid from the sheriff’s department’s county general fund-supported budget was $42,770. Detention deputies paid from the jail fund, which a countywide 0.375% sales tax supports, started out at $39,638.
The pay table bumped entry-level salaries for all enforcement division ranks by $5,000, with entry-level pay for all detention division ranks increased to match enforcement division pay.
The sheriff’s department said last week that it plans to open all eight detention areas when newly hired deputies complete training, allowing the 168,000-square-foot facility to house up to 495 inmates. According to daily population reports the jail provided, the facility has housed about 360 inmates on average since January.
A population breakdown the jail provided last week showed 23 inmates were awaiting transfer to Arkansas Department of Correction facilities. More than 260, including 216 men and 46 women, had pending felony charges. There were 78 being held on parole/ probation violations and 245 serving misdemeanor sentences from Garland County District Court.
The sheriff’s department noted some inmates occupy more than one status classification.
Advocacy campaigns for sales taxes financing the $42 million construction of the jail that opened at 3564 Albert Pike Road in 2015 and supporting its maintenance and operation said misdemeanor justice would be the focus of the new facility.
Misdemeanor offenders are often described as county inmates, as the state Constitution prohibits counties from declaring any act a felony. Crowding has periodically led to restrictions limiting intake of such offenders, a policy the county partly attributed to the Criminal Justice Efficiency and Safety Act when intake restrictions were used in 2019.
The 2017 law allows the state parole and probation agency to punish technical parole violations, such as failed drug screens or missed meetings with parole officers, with up to a 180-day term in a state facility. But most violators serve their sanctions in county jails.
“Sheriff Mccormick has upheld his promise affirming Garland County inmates remain the priority,” the sheriff’s department said last week. “It is important to understand in accordance with state statutes, the jail has very limited control over its population levels and must incarcerate felony charged inmates to keep our community safe.
“The fact remains the jail does not retain the authority to dictate who is arrested by other agencies, who is pending dispositions through the local courts and when external state entities will accept their prisoners.”
The jail and its eight pods were configured according to the direct supervision model recommended by the Colorado consulting firm the county paid $1.2 million. It differs from the linear model used at the old jail on the county’s Ouachita Avenue campus, where deputies intermittently supervised rows of cell blocks.
The new model puts them at the center of inmate living areas. Unencumbered by intervening barriers, inmates orbit a single deputy stationed in the center of the pod. The sheriff’s department said the new model is better for staff, inmates and taxpayers.
“Operating under the previous linear supervision jail model teaches us how negatively impactful linear operations can affect the county and staff,” the sheriff’s department said. “As our own linear jail experienced significant maintenance problems due to minimal staff presence, multiple escapes, lack of jail control, safety issues and litigation which was lost at the county taxpayers’ expense.
“Since operating the facility under direct supervision, the county has not lost any lawsuit(s) filed by an inmate, experienced zero escapes from the facility and sustains a much safer work environment.”
The sheriff’s department said reverting to the old model would be “irrational.”
“The detention center was specifically designed and constructed to operate under direct supervision,” it said. “Such deliberate change in operations would unnecessarily generate undue risk of litigation for the county; as well as create an unsafe environment for detention personnel, inmates and any volunteer/professional visiting the facility.”