Newton County Sheriff Keith Slape is looking forward to June 1, when he will open the county’s new jail, which has stood vacant since it was completed in summer 2012.
The county has had no lockup for almost five years, and some offenders have taken advantage of that, Slape said.
He said “‘he hears retorts such as, “‘Are you going to take us to jail? You don’t have one.’ That gets under your skin pretty quick.”
In 2008, an Arkansas Criminal Detention Facility Review Committee found the old Newton County jail was unsafe, the same year two of its inmates committed suicide. The jail closed in July 2009.
Newton County voters in 2008 passed a half-percentage-point sales tax increase to build a new jail, but they rejected tax-increase proposals in 2008 and 2012 to pay for its operation.
In September 2012, county officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $1 million jail with space for 30 inmates, but it didn’t open.
With no money to operate it, Slape has spent $5,000 to $8,000 a month to house inmates at the Boone County jail in Harrison, about 20 miles away, he said. That cost does not include the time and gasoline required for sheriff’s deputies to transport inmates between Jasper and Harrison.
Last summer, Slape announced plans to apply for a grant from the Arkansas Department of Rural Services. State Sen. Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, secured $400,000 in state “general improvement funds” for the Rural Services Department. Although the department decides how the grant money is awarded, Lamoureux hoped it would be used to assist Newton County in opening the jail.
In January, Slape learned the department had awarded the county $144,064 in grant money for jail supplies and equipment, including $8,192 for a commercial stove for the kitchen and $14,000 for video cameras for the surveillance system, he said.
The grant freed up money in the sheriff’s office budget for Slape to operate the jail for six months, he said. The monthly operating cost is expected to be about $25,000.
In November, the county Quorum Court approved a millage increase that went into effect this year and will provide ongoing revenue for the jail starting in 2015, Slape said.
The justices of the peace increased the county general property tax from 3.5 mills to 5 mills and the county roads property tax from 1.5 mills to 3 mills, said Donnie Davis, who serves in a dual role as Newton’s county and circuit clerk.
The increased millage will provide an estimated $110,000 for the county general fund and $110,000 for county roads, said Newton County Assessor Sheila McCutcheon.
For the owner of a $100,000 home, a 3-mill increase will cost $60 more annually in property tax.
Justice of the Peace Clinton Daniels voted for the increase because of the need for county services.
“We have a brand-new jail and don’t even have it open because we haven’t gotten the money to operate it,” Daniels said.
Circuit Judge Shawn Womack - who hears child-support cases in Baxter, Boone, Marion and Newton counties - said that in Newton County, he has had to weigh ordering jail time for a parent who wasn’t paying child support against the extra time and cost for the county. When he couldn’t justify the cost, he said, he worked with the sheriff to sentence offenders to community service in lieu of jail time.
“We’ve been operating without a jail for at least a couple of years,” Womack said. “That certainly can create a risk of people pushing the limits of the court further because they don’t think they’re going to have to do the jail time.”
Having a jail in Newton County again will remove the concern over the added cost, he said.
“It puts us back in our normal thought process of when jail time might be a more effective tool,” Womack said.
Without a jail, sentencing of nonviolent offenders in Newton County has made sheriff’s deputies appear like parents who count to three and then take no action, Slape said. He hopes opening the jail will change that.
“You will get your timeout,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/24/2014