An Arkansas legislative panel Monday signed off on Gov. Asa Hutchinson's request to use $2.65 million in state rainy-day funds to lease bed space for state inmates in Bowie County in Texas.
The Joint Budget Committee's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee approved the Republican governor's request.
Hutchinson said in a letter that the transfer of funds to the state Department of Correction will help with the costs associated with leasing bed space from out-of-state facilities.
The transfer leaves the governor with nearly $2.1 million in leftover rainy-day funds, said Kathy Schmidt of the Bureau of Legislative Research.
The legislative panel approved the transfer of these funds a month after the Arkansas Board of Corrections approved a contract with the Bowie County jail in Texarkana, Texas, to house Arkansas Department of Correction inmates at $36 per day, plus a $2.42 per day medical coverage stipend.
The cost is more than the $30 per day the state pays to Arkansas jails to house inmates, but less than the $60 average per day per inmate that the state estimates it costs to house inmates in Arkansas prisons.
Hutchinson announced his $32 million plan to ease prison and county jail crowding and a strained parole system on Feb 18.
The Department of Correction will begin transferring inmates to Bowie County this week, department spokesman Cathy Frye said after Monday's meeting.
Bowie County has agreed to house up to 288 Arkansas inmates at the Bowie County Correctional Facility, and the department sent the facility a proposed transfer list of 244 inmates last week, Frye said.
"This is a short-term solution," she said. "The contract expires on Dec. 31, 2015, although both parties have the right to terminate sooner."
The department already has the leeway to enter into a contract with Bowie County under Arkansas Code Annotated 12-27-103, Frye said.
Among other things, that law says the Department of Correction "may cooperate with and contract with the federal government, governmental agencies of Arkansas and other states, political subdivisions of Arkansas, political subdivisions of other states, and private contractors to provide and improve correctional operations."
The state's prisons have 15,324 inmates and the units were meant to hold only 14,331, Frye said.
In addition, 2,416 state inmates are in county jails, she said.
Hutchinson's $32 million plan is aimed at finding immediate bed space for state prisoners while investing in parole and court strategies meant to curb prison populations in the long run.
The plan would yield 790 additional beds for state inmates, increase parole staffing levels and pay for 500 beds for soon-to-be parolees at regional "re-entry" centers run by state parole officials. Inmates would undergo training and treatment there.
About $31 million from state insurance reserve funds will pay for the first two years of the plan and additional dollars will come from unclaimed property funds, Hutchinson said last month. House Bills 1152 and 1207 to shift these funds are pending in the Arkansas Legislature's Joint Budget Committee.
Metro on 03/24/2015