$7.4M sought for prison beds

Hutchinson to pitch adding 200 slots at PB to legislators

Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks to the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association at the Arlington Hotel & Spa in Hot Springs in this file photo.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks to the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association at the Arlington Hotel & Spa in Hot Springs in this file photo.

HOT SPRINGS -- Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday that he plans to ask the Legislative Council for $7.4 million to add about 200 prison beds in Pine Bluff.

"Hope is important. And actually that can apply to a lot of arenas of life," Hutchinson said at a meeting of the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association. "Today I'm going to apply it to your work in terms of overcrowding of the county jails and the backlog that you have to deal with every day."

The governor said the additional bed space, planned for the Ester Unit in Pine Bluff, would help reduce prison overcrowding. He said the money would come from discretionary and rainy-day funds.

The $7.4 million is "above and beyond" a $33 million overhaul plan the Legislature approved earlier this year. That plan increased the bed space for prisoners, invested in more parole officers and called for court strategies to reduce prison populations in the long term.

The plan aims to reduce recidivism rates, while finding additional space for prisoners, instead of spending $100 million on a 1,000-bed prison.

When Hutchinson announced the plan in February, prison populations were growing. More stringent parole policies led to a boom in parole revocations, which contributed to a 17 percent increase in prisoners in 2014. At the time, 2,631 prisoners were being held in county jails.

Since January, more than 500 additional prison beds have been put in place, but there are still 2,620 prisoners held in county jails. That's 11 fewer than when the plan was announced. It's also 220 fewer than a peak of 2,840 inmates, Hutchinson said Monday.

He said the decrease in overcrowding didn't equal the number of beds added because law enforcement was continuing to crack down on parole violations.

He also noted that though some beds have opened up, parts of the plan, like 500 beds for soon-to-be parolees at regional "re-entry centers," were not yet online.

"It takes a while to make the impact through the changes that are made," Hutchinson said. "So I'm asking for your patience, for your support and to recognize that there's hope around the corner."

In an interview after the meeting, Hutchinson said calling for additional beds did not mean the original plan wasn't working.

"I said at the very beginning, there's no guarantee that any of this will change behavior, will lead to the results that we desire, but we've got to try this investment and I'm still confident that we can make it work," he said. "I would say that it's on target. The ultimate outcome is too early to tell."

He said he hoped to see changes in the number of prisoners in county jails by early next year.

At the meeting, Bill Hollenbeck, Sebastian County sheriff, said reducing recidivism rates is cheaper than building more prisons and ultimately a better outcome.

"Governor, thank you so much for partnering with us," he said. "You seem to be completely squared away on our needs, and I think the modern efforts that we have to do to curb this overcrowding in county jails and the state prison system."

Hutchinson initially requested $4.4 million for personnel services and operating expenses to open 356 beds at the Ester Unit. The project was expected to be completed in two phases, with an expected completion date of Jan. 1.

The $7.4 million announced Monday will allow for a third phase of construction to provide another 200 beds, for a total of 556 beds, said prison spokesman Cathy Frye.

There are currently 184 open beds at the Ester Unit, and another 172 will open in January.

"The Ester Unit was our No. 1 priority for construction funding," Arkansas Correction Department Director Wendy Kelley said.

The Correction Department currently has funding for the first two construction phases plus one year of operations expenses.

"The inmates currently housed there are assigned to construction and are working on Phase Two," Frye said.

The governor said that he would formally ask the Legislative Council to approve the funds as early as next week. Because the funds are drawn from rainy day and discretionary accounts, the Legislature can approve funding during a committee meeting, he said.

"I think this puts our jail plan into place, our prison overcrowding plan into place, so I would not anticipate additional funds next fiscal session," he said.

In January, the focus of the Ester facility will shift from construction to re-entry, Frye said.

"Inmates at Ester will be those who are within 18 months of their parole dates," she said. "They will participate in pre-release programs, put together resumes, and search for jobs and housing."

The Ester Unit is located in the old Pine Bluff Diagnostic Unit, which closed in 2012. The facility is named for Cpl. Barbara Ester, who was killed on Jan. 29, 2012, by an inmate at the East Arkansas Regional Unit.

House Speaker Rep. Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said adding another 200 beds was part of contingency planning.

"I think this is more of an intermediate step while the reforms are being implemented," he said. "There was always a possibility of there being a delay to see the results of the reforms."

He said it was too early to tell if the reforms would pass the Legislative Council.

On the other hand, Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, said he believed that the $7.4 million was likely to be approved by the Legislative Council.

"Over a number of years, we haven't kept up with needed capacity in our prison system," he said. "What we are having to do is make up for lost time."

"The numbers are the numbers. This is not a problem that's going to go away. We have dangerous people going on parole that probably shouldn't be let out."

Metro on 07/28/2015

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