The Pulaski County jail will close at noon Tuesday because of overcrowding, officials say.
The jail held 1,281 inmates on Monday morning, but the facility's funded capacity is only 1,210, Pulaski County sheriff’s office spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said in an email.
This comes after the jail recently reopened its doors to offenders on June 9 after having closed it to low-level offenders April 29, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported. Concerns voiced for months over the costs and safety risks posed by a backlog in the jail of state inmates waiting for prison beds led to that closure.
As of Monday morning, 2,486 state inmates were housed in county jails awaiting prison beds, according to the Association of Arkansas Counties.
The House and Senate in Arkansas are set to discuss funding to ease prison overcrowding in its special session, which begins at 4 p.m. Monday.