PINE BLUFF -- Officials overseeing Arkansas' prison, probation and parole systems said this week that they will ask for a sit-down with Gov. Asa Hutchinson after being saddled with funding cuts.
Prisons in Arkansas, under the Department of Correction, will not have to cut back on any "essential" services -- namely security, work programs and inmate care -- and will not have to let any staff members go, a spokesman said.
But plans to contract out up to 400 re-entry beds for offenders through Arkansas Community Correction next year are already being scaled back, after the governor announced budget cuts to state agencies in fiscal 2018 earlier this month.
In addition to cuts in next year's Category B, or lower priority, spending, the directors of each agency said they learned Tuesday morning that they will have to absorb millions in the cost of implementing a state pay raise for their employees.
The notice preceded a state Board of Corrections meeting Tuesday in Pine Bluff, where board Chairman Benny Magness said he would "beg" the governor for more money.
Both departments are expected to submit their budgets in a week for fiscal 2018, which starts July 1.
"It's gonna be pretty lean," Magness said.
The state's $43 million cut for fiscal 2018, precipitated by an expectation of revenue falling below forecast, will be spread evenly across agencies' with Category B funding.
Both prison-related agencies will have to trim similar amounts -- $1.7 million for the Correction Department, $1.5 million for Community Correction -- though the prison system's nearly $350 million budget is quadruple that of Community Correction, which oversees probation and parole services.
Before announcing cuts for next fiscal year, Hutchinson said in late April that he would cut $70 million in the secondary funding for the remainder of the current fiscal 2017.
That led to a $2.2. million hit to prisons, while Community Correction, which did not have Category B funds this year, avoided a loss.
Community Correction was planning to use Category B funds in fiscal 2018 to expand its network of re-entry beds, contracted at $30 a night at small, private centers.
On Tuesday, the agency had contracts for 298 such beds, and Director Sheila Sharp said the cuts mean the state can only afford two more beds, instead of another 102.
Prison Director Wendy Kelley said her staff is still looking for places to trim the budget before presenting it to the board.
As part of the overall budget squeeze, the state also gave notice in March that it would ask agencies to pay for a higher share of a new pay plan for next fiscal year than originally expected.
Magness told his fellow board members that the numbers given to the correctional agencies Tuesday were alarming.
The $6.8 million cost for prisons to implement the pay plan will be paid off using $1.8 million from the state's merit adjustment fund, with the rest coming from salary savings previously accrued by the department, spokesman Solomon Graves said.
Community Correction will have to pick up $4.4 million of its $5.7 million tab for the pay raise out of its general budget, according to Sharp.
"Somewhere in our budget we're going to have to find that money," Sharp said.
The two directors and Magness said they plan to attend a meeting with the governor.
Also during the board meeting, Hutchinson's adviser on criminal justice, Kelly Eichler, praised prison officials for their work during a series of April executions -- which brought international attention to the state.
"The governor is most appreciative of the professional manner in which everyone at ADC handled the past month," Eichler said.
Also Tuesday, Kelley told the board that prisoners from the Grimes Unit in Newport had assisted local officials in northeast Arkansas during recent floods.
Groups from the prison laid sandbags in Jackson County before the high waters came, and helped gut a flooded public building in Randolph County after the waters receded, Kelley said.
Metro on 05/18/2017