Board of corrections notebook

Director seeks 48 transfers to Texas

The Arkansas board of corrections on Monday gave Correction Department Director Wendy Kelley the go-ahead to ask Gov. Asa Hutchinson for the money to transfer another 48 inmates to a Texas prison.

The Bowie County, Texas, prison is currently holding 336 Arkansas inmates, who began being transferred there in March.

Kelley told the board that Texas prison officials had called her during Monday’s meeting to tell her that more beds had become available.

A contract with the Bowie County facility was signed in February, setting a price of $36 per day plus a $2.42 per day medical coverage stipend.

The cost is more than the $30 per day the state pays county jails to house inmates but less than the $60 average per day per inmate that the state prison officials estimate it costs to house inmates in Arkansas prisons.

There were 14,804 inmates in Arkansas prisons as of Monday.

Probation offices approved to move

The relocation of two probation and parole offices was approved by the board of Corrections at its regular meeting Monday.

Arkansas Community Correction’s Bentonville offices will be relocated to 1001 W. Walnut St. in Rogers.

Deputy Director Dan Roberts said the landlord for the Bentonville offices has other plans for the space and the agency was told that he would not renew the agency’s lease.

The new offices in Rogers have 10,400 square feet with space for 43 offices, a conference area, waiting room, reception area and a break room. The $83,200 annual lease — a savings of over $30,000 — will be good for seven years with 2 percent annual increases.

The agency’s Blytheville office will be moved next door to its current location on East Main Street.

The new space — which will rent for the same $510 per month — differs from the current workplace in that it is designed with five separate areas, allowing for more privacy. The lobby area is also larger, Roberts said.

Housing centers’ cost per day dips

The average cost per day to house inmates at residential centers operated by Arkansas Community Correction dropped by 5 percent in fiscal year 2015, going from $70.15 per day in 2014 to $66.79 per day in 2015.

Community Correction Deputy Director Chad Brown told the board of corrections at its regular meeting Monday that the average population at the centers increased, causing a dip in the average cost per day.

The cost per day for drug courts overseen by the agency dropped by 12 percent, going from $14.30 per day in 2014 to $12.61 in 2015. The decline resulted from too many staff positions being charged to that area in 2014.

A reassessment of staffing positions as well as an increase in the population count caused the numbers to drop in 2015, Brown said.

The agency’s cost per day for its technical violator program decreased by 3 percent, going from $61.14 in 2014 to $59.15 in 2015, due to a population increase.

However, the cost per day for the probation and parole program rose by 4 percent, from $2.16 in fiscal year 2014 to $2.24 in 2015. Brown said the rise was due to a drop in population, which went from 50,499 in 2014 to 49,242 in 2015.

Department head: 570 jobs available

The state Correction Department has about 570 job vacancies, Director Wendy Kelley said in a written report to the board on Monday.

The department is utilizing several avenues to spur job applications, including its Facebook page, the Discover Corrections website and the ARStateJobs website. The department’s human resources recruiter also coordinated several job fairs around the state.

There were a total of 2,538 applications received by the end of October, the most recent date for which information was available, through the ARStateJobs website.

By the end of October, the department had hired 157 new employees; all but three filled correctional officer positions.

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