Jail crowding prioritized on Hyde agenda

Incoming county judge set to seek law on inmate stays

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN --09/8/2014--
Democratic candidate for Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde answers questions during a Public Forum
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN --09/8/2014-- Democratic candidate for Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde answers questions during a Public Forum

As he prepares to become the first new Pulaski County judge since 1991, Barry Hyde has one thing on his mind more than anything else: the jail.

While Hyde is looking into increasing recycling opportunities for Pulaski County residents, improving drainage in east Pulaski County areas prone to flooding, and evaluating county departments and leadership, he must also work with a jail that has struggled with crowding since the fall of 2013. The lockup has closed to most nonviolent, nonfelony offenders three times for more than 100 days in 2014.

The crowding was the direct result of stricter parole policies instituted by the state Aug. 1, 2013, which have sent more people back into the state prison system than there's been room to hold. As a result, at any given time, there is a backlog of more than 2,000 state inmates in county jails awaiting transfers to state lockups, and two times more than usual in Pulaski County.

Next spring, Hyde plans to ask the Legislature to pass a law requiring the state correctional system to pick up state inmates within 30 days of their prison sentencing.

"The county should not be in the prison business," Hyde said.

Hyde said the jail should be filled with more misdemeanor violators, who currently are issued citations instead of going to jail. Many people who have been charged with numerous counts of failure to appear in court aren't being held in jail to ensure that they show up to their court dates, he said.

This isn't the first time someone has suggested such a law, said Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Departments of Correction and Community Correction. The idea has always posed a lot of practical problems, she said.

"At the end of 30 days, if we haven't picked them up because we have no room -- what happens? Do we load them up and take them to a desert island?" Tyler asked. She added that overcapacity prisons can be dangerous.

As of Tuesday, Arkansas prisons held 14,020 men in lockups built to hold 13,164 -- 6.5 percent over capacity. Prisons for women held 1,229 in lockups built to hold 1,167 -- 5.3 percent over capacity.

During the past six months, state inmates have lingered in the Pulaski County jail for 60-90 days, according to the sheriff's office. Hyde is proposing the 30-day limit because that's the average amount of time it takes for all of the paperwork to go through to transfer an inmate from the county jail to the state prison system, he said.

"If he [Hyde] wants to approach the Legislature with a commitment like that, I think all the county sheriffs across the state would be on board with it," Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay said. "But whether or not he's able to convince the Legislature to compel the state to remove those inmates within 30 days is another issue, because I think the state's position is going to be, 'Where are we going to move them to?'"

In July, the Legislature approved $6.3 million for the Correction Department to open up vacant buildings across the state to hold 604 prisoners. One of those was the Pulaski County jail work center.

The work center, with space to hold up to 240 inmates, is part of the county jail but it was not used for housing inmates because the county and cities have not agreed to pay more to staff it. It was instead used for the jail's day program for inmates, and no prisoners stayed there overnight.

In July, the county leased the building to the state for $1 for a year.

The Correction Department has proposed a new 1,000-bed maximum-security prison that would cost $100 million to build. But lawmakers have been hesitant to approve it and have instead suggested that the state explore options for reducing the state's prison population.

Meanwhile, the Association of Arkansas Counties has proposed an increase in the reimbursement rate paid to county jails for holding state inmates.

The current rate, arrived at in 2001, is $28 per inmate per day. A report released by the state Legislative Audit Division in November estimated the cost of holding the inmates at $49.35 per inmate per day. The association is asking to increase the rate to $35, which the association's director has called more "reasonable" for the state to handle.

The Pulaski County sheriff's office has billed the state $3,269,456 through November for holding inmates in the jail in 2014. It's been paid $1,689,408, the last amount of which came in June.

The jail's budget this year was $24.9 million -- 39 percent of the $64.2 million county general fund budget. Reimbursements from the state go back to the county's general fund and are used to pay the county's bills over time.

"It lessens our cash flow," Comptroller Mike Hutchens said of the lack of reimbursements. But "we've not had to dip into reserves yet to cover that."

Holladay has said repeatedly that he prefers having more open jail beds than having more money from the state.

Hyde said "in the end, the jail is not functioning the way it should in this county." He added that the jail should be a component of public safety, housing criminals and discouraging crime.

"It's not," he said.

"We're just right on the edge of having to close it again."

"Without the jail, there's no leverage," Hyde said. "There's no hammer. There's no hammer to push folks in the right direction."

Tyler said she understands where the county is coming from, but she stressed that there are no simple solutions to the problem for anyone.

"They don't have any room, we don't have any room, no one has any room," Tyler said.

New commitments to the prison system, not related to paroles in 2013, were up 13 percent for men and 40 percent for women, Tyler said.

The number of new prisoners entering the lockups is outpacing the number of prisoners leaving by 56 each month, she said. That's compared with the past 10 years, when the prison population grew by about 35 people per month, she said.

"At the pace we're going at, we'll need a 1,200-bed prison every two years," she said. "We can't sustain that.

"We're just all frustrated and tired," Tyler added. "I mean, we are. We've got to do something, but there's no simple, quick fix. There's not."

Metro on 12/28/2014

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