$100 million for new prison to go before legislators in '15

Correction: Additional state prison beds will be available at the Ouachita River facility near Malvern. This story misstated where that facility is located.

State corrections officials told a joint legislative committee Thursday that they will ask the Legislature for funding during next year's session to build a new prison that would cost up to $100 million.

The prison would house about 1,000 inmates. Its price tag isn't known because the design hasn't been finalized, but it would cost about $25 million per year to operate, officials said.

The Legislature sent $6.3 million to the Department of Correction during a special session earlier this month to open up an additional 604 beds in state prisons and jails. Department officials said the money will open 250 beds in the Pulaski County work center, 124 beds at the Tucker Parole Boot Camp, 100 beds at the McPherson lockup outside Newport, 72 beds at the Ouachita River facility outside Newport and 58 beds at the Northwest Arkansas Work Release Center in Springdale.

Ray Hobbs, the director of the department, said there were still 2,330 state prisoners in county jails, but that the agency has started transferring inmates to its own lockups using the additional money.

Hobbs said the overcrowding wasn't completely tied to the changes to the state parole system. He said many prisoners are on death row or have life sentences without possibility of parole. Others have decades-long sentences or won't be eligible for release until they've served at least 70 percent of the time.

"I bring this to your [attention] because 30 percent of our population, or near 5,000 inmates, probably won't leave the Department of Correction. They will not be released on parole or anything, so they won't turn over beds for the new inmates coming in. So that's a big problem outside of our [parole] revocations that's causing prison overcrowding," Hobbs said.

Hobbs said his agency is working with the Department of Community Correction to reduce the recidivism rate from 43.2 percent to about 35 percent or 36 percent. But they are also experiencing an increase in people who are entering the prison system for the first time. The number of new commitments in 2013 was 721 more than in 2012. Hobbs said the trend that prison officials are seeing is that "they're coming in younger, they're staying longer and they're more violent."

In response to a question from Rep. Andrea Lea, R-Russellville, Hobbs said the new prison would only deal with the state's current inmate count of 17,374. The state's prison population is expected to grow by 800 to 1,000 inmates per year and reach 20,024 to 21,906 by 2024.

Benny Magness, the chairman of the state Board of Corrections, said the design of the new prison would likely take the increasing number of violent offenders into consideration. He said the department was considering a design with less "barracks" space and more "two-man cells," which provide more security.

"We are having issues inside our institutions with not having enough segregation in certain facilities to be able to handle all of the inmates who will just not abide by the rules of the corrections system, our rules and policies. It's kind of been like a musical chairs thing inside our institutions," Magness said.

Magness said corrections officials would send out a request for information within 60 days to see which communities would be interested in having the new facility.

Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, said she wants to see more efforts to prevent recidivism while promoting job training and placement programs.

"I think in Arkansas we ought to be trying to think about things that we create. ... We're going to have to do more because you can keep on building prisons and they're going to keep on coming out," Flowers said.

Sheila Sharp, the director of the Department of Community Correction, told the committee she would be requesting more funding to build up the agency's re-entry programs and to hire more parole officers.

Sharp told reporters after the meeting that she would request an additional $9.5 million in fiscal 2016 and $13 million in fiscal 2017.

While it's not guaranteed that the money will be approved, Sharp said, "I'm hopeful. We've been telling our story [to lawmakers]."

Magness told reporters after the meeting that the new prison would take a minimum of three years to build after funding is authorized. He said he has already received calls from people who want it built in their area because it will provide about 400 jobs.

Magness said the additional money allocated during the special session was "unbelievably crucial" to ease "the pain" from the overcrowding problem, but that the growth would be unsustainable without additional funds.

"Our job is to show them our needs. We know we're going to have to have a 1,000-bed prison," Magness said.

Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, told the committee that a decision on the new prison was still a long time away. He said the issue will be discussed at length during the 2015 session and asked for detailed information from corrections officials to help lawmakers decide.

Metro on 07/18/2014

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