The Board of Corrections voted Wednesday to send letters of interest to neighboring states in an effort to determine the possibility of temporarily housing Arkansas inmates in privately run facilities.
Two elements are key to its feasibility: Whether Arkansas can afford comparable and affordable medical care for inmates housed across state lines, and whether a private facility would offer the same educational programs, treatment and job training offered by Arkansas prisons.
The impetus for the board's action was a presentation made to legislators Tuesday by representatives of LaSalle Southwest Corrections, a private company that operates prisons in several areas of Louisiana and Georgia, as well as holding facilities in Texas.
LaSalle's managing director, Billy McConnell, said the company would charge Arkansas between $27.50 and $28.50 per prisoner, per day. But that estimate doesn't include the cost of medical care.
McConnell said his company would offer an in-house nurse and other medical staff, as well as a doctor who visits weekly or twice a week. But hospital care, such as surgeries, and prescription drugs would have to be covered by the state at what he estimated would be a cost of $10 to $12 per inmate, per day.
The company that currently provides medical care for Arkansas inmates estimated that providing the same level of care to state inmates housed in a LaSalle prison would cost $45 per inmate, per day.
On Wednesday, board members said they want to know whether other privately owned facilities offer medical care comparable to what is provided at Arkansas prisons and at what cost. They also stressed the need for education, job training and treatment programs such as those offered at Arkansas prisons.
"I hope and pray we don't go back 40 years," board member Tyronne Broomfield said of transferring state inmates to private facilities. "We don't just want somewhere to lock them up."
Just minutes earlier, the board had enthusiastically discussed new technology for vocational training and education at several Arkansas prisons, which heightened concerns about what kind of services inmates housed out of state would receive.
Broomfield said he felt optimistic about plans to introduce electronic tablets to prison classrooms and online certification programs for vocational technology students.
"Education is the key to the system," he added.
Chairman Benny Magness agreed, saying that inmates who leave prison with either a GED or job-skill certifications are more likely to succeed.
"If you want to get them to stay out, you've got to train them," he said.
As of Wednesday, 2,424 state inmates remained locked up in county jails because there isn't room at state prisons.
Arkansas has sent inmates out of state in the past.
The Department of Correction contracted with Bowie County, Texas, in fiscal 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001 to house Arkansas inmates at the Bowie County Correctional Facility.
At that time, the rate was $39.50 per inmate, per day, according to a report by the Arkansas Legislative Audit Division.
Those inmates were transferred to Texas from Arkansas prisons to ease crowding in county jails. The contract ended in June 2001. Construction of the Ouachita River Correctional Unit in Malvern alleviated crowding for a while.
In recent years, the inmate population has grown as younger and more violent offenders are sentenced to longer terms.
Part of the reason board members are leery of private prisons is due to their experience with Wackenhut Corrections Corp., which was awarded a contract in 1996 to manage the Grimes and McPherson prisons in Newport.
At first, things ran smoothly. But in late 2000, prison officials began questioning how the units were managed. Their inquiries began when a litany of complaints from inmates proved credible after surprise visits to the two prisons.
Problems included dangerous staffing shortages, unsanitary living conditions, poor maintenance and a lack of work and educational programs. Board members who visited the units found them to be dirty. Broken or malfunctioning equipment was left in disrepair. Women inmates were deprived of underwear, and their uniforms were shredded and rotting.
Because of the staffing shortage, inmates weren't being made to work either in the units or in the community. Nor were inmates getting to their school classes or drug-abuse programs.
Instead, prisoners were lounging in unkempt barracks, where close quarters and boredom were fuel for fights and other kinds of trouble.
The board began investigating as Wackenhut requested more money as the date to renew its contract approached. The company cited soaring medical costs as its most significant financial obstacle.
On Feb. 15, 2001, Wackenhut bowed out of Arkansas, just as the board was preparing to decide whether it should ask the company to turn the lockups back over to the state.
The Board of Corrections voted last summer to approve the Department of Correction's recommendation to build a 1,000-bed maximum-security prison that would house violent offenders with lengthy sentences. The facility also would have 200 single punitive cells for inmates who continue to cause problems during incarceration.
A new prison is expected to cost between $75 million and $100 million.
The department plans to seek legislative approval next year to finance a $95 million bond issue through an increase in license plate fees. The current fee is $2.50; $1.50 goes to the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, and $1 goes to the state Department of Finance and Administration's Revenue Division to administer vehicle registrations.
Whether the Legislature will sign off on this plan is debatable, board members agreed, noting that the Department of Correction has unsuccessfully sought funding for new prisons numerous times in the past decade.
The board now worries that it may find itself in a situation similar to that of California correction officials. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an order to reduce the prison population, agreeing that inmates' constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment had been violated due to excessive crowding.
California has until February 2016 to reduce its prison population from 144 percent of its capacity to 137.5 percent, according to a report by The New York Times.
According to a report published in September by The Washington Post, prison crowding is "especially acute in 17 states where the prison population is now higher than the capacity of the facilities designed to hold them. Those states, still recovering from a recession that decimated budgets, have to decide whether to build facilities with more beds, turn to private contractors, relax release policies -- or simply stuff more prisoners into smaller spaces."
That same report put Arkansas prisons at 98.7 percent of capacity.
"It all goes back to funding," board member Janis Walmsley said. "We've asked for prisons over and over. And this time we're serious."
State Desk on 12/04/2014