In bid to ease overcrowding, jail closed to some offenders

The Pulaski County jail was closed to nonviolent, nonfelony offenders Tuesday after Sheriff Doc Holladay and other jail officials determined that overcrowding at the facility had reached a critical state.

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Holladay notified judges and law enforcement agencies last week that the jail faced closure, as its population consistently had been above the intended capacity of 1,210 inmates. On Monday, 1,316 inmates were being held at the jail. On Tuesday, there were 1,300.

“We determined that we weren’t getting any immediate relief from the state on the number of state inmates that we’re holding,” Holladay said, referring to a backlog of inmates at the Pulaski County jail awaiting transport to the Arkansas Department of Correction. Between 25 percent and 40 percent of the jail’s population on any given day consists of inmates being held for the state.

It is the second time in the past three years that the jail has “closed” because of overcrowding. Holladay said there will be daily assessments of the population to determine when low-level offenders might be jailed again. Sheriff’s office spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said the recently established cap of 1,300 inmates is somewhat arbitrary but that after years of overcrowding at the facility, there “had to be a crucible somewhere.”

“It might not open up until [the population] drops down to like 1,270 or 1,260. It’s hard to say. Either way it goes, you’re still overcrowded,” he said.

The swollen population has presented safety concerns for jail officers and inmates alike, Holladay said. It also has stretched the resources of the facility. Food, manpower and overtime hours increasingly have been divided, according to Holladay.

“The longer we operate above our budgeted capacity, that drains our operational costs,” he said.

Chief of Detention Randy Morgan said he was not sure how many offenders were turned away from the jail Tuesday, saying “it’s not something we were planning on tracking.” Nonviolent offenders taken to the jail were being fingerprinted, entered into a state database and given a citation to appear in court before being released back to the arresting agency.

Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen said misdemeanor offenders were being given citations “in the field,” which is common but can be at the discretion of officers.

Police Chief Stuart Thomas informed Mayor Mark Stodola and the Little Rock Board of Directors of the jail closure during a board meeting Tuesday night.

“The state Legislature needs to address the issue of jail funding and how the county is reimbursed,” Stodola said. “Little Rock pays $2.2 million to the Pulaski County jail to house its offenders, and now the city is being told it can’t bring criminals to the jail.”

Ward 5 City Director Lance Hines said the closure was a “failure of our county government and state government.”

“Our county jail, and I’m going to say it because my constituents bring it up, they are just baffled by the fact that our county government can spend $20 million on arches on a bridge but they can’t fund jail beds at our county jail,” he said.

When the Pulaski County jail closed three years ago, Little Rock police transported some offenders to the Faulker County jail. But that facility is also overcrowded, like many county jails in the state.

Thomas said the city will turn to the Grant County jail in Sheridan, which might have room for three to five additional offenders at a given time.

“It’s frustrating,” he said.

Information for this article was contributed by Chelsea Boozer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 04/30/2014

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