The state's largest jail is set to "close" at noon today, the third time this year the facility will limit the prisoners it takes in due to prisoner overcrowding at state and local levels.
After a meeting with jail administrators Monday morning, Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay decided that the jail would again deny most nonviolent and property crime offenders in an effort to curb what he says is an unsustainable headcount.
The facility, which is funded to house 1,210 inmates, has been over capacity since Aug. 18, when it had 1,225 offenders.
It rose steadily, reaching 1,243 Friday; on Monday morning, it reached 1,287.
The decision came a month and a day after the jail last reopened to all offenders.
The jail closed for the second time this year July 1, with 1,281 prisoners, only to reopen 24 days later when daily population figures dropped to about 1,140.
Before that, the jail was closed for 41 days to all but the most serious offenders beginning April 29 after a month where the jail averaged 1,270 inmates a day and more than 1,300 for the week before the closing.
The factors driving the high numbers -- mainly, a glut of inmates awaiting prison beds or other state inmates being held at the facility for various parole or probation violations -- remain the same.
On Monday, 421 of the inmates at the jail, roughly one-third of the population, were state prisoners.
Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Shea Wilson said that the state's jail backlog, which has stayed at or near record highs during the past several months, was at 2,249 Monday.
Those prisoners are waiting on jail beds in county jails throughout the state, said Wilson, who noted that several counties are feeling a strain similar to Holladay's, although no others have turned away low-level offenders.
Holladay said the increased number of prisoners, including more hardened criminals, poses greater safety risks to both jail staff and those in lockup.
Sheriffs' offices aren't aren't the only places strained, according to state records, which show that as of Monday, the state's prison facilities housed 15,020 inmates, 5.6 percent higher than the 14,120 funding capacity.
The influx of prisoners was the result of an increase in commitments, as well as an increase in parole and probation revocations after state correction officials tightened regulations after the high-profile case of an eight-time absconder, Darrell Dennis, who was arrested and charged in the 2013 kidnapping and slaying of 19-year-old Forrest Abrams in Little Rock.
Dennis is being housed in an isolated cell in the Pulaski County jail while he awaits trial.
Correction Department officials plan to ask the Legislature for the funding to build a 1,000-bed prison, one that could cost as much as $100 million, at their next session.
Until then, Wilson has said her agency has sought to find efficiencies, reopening some units and leasing a former work center from Pulaski County for $1 to alleviate some of the pressure felt by jailers such as Holladay.
On Monday, the county's former work center, which has a 250-bed capacity, only had about 150 prisoners.
Wilson said that since it is a new facility, state officials want to slowly fill it so they can handle any issues that arise with taking over an unfamiliar building.
Metro on 08/26/2014