FAYETTEVILLE -- Local activists opposed to jail expansion plans in Benton and Washington counties spent Thursday and Friday hearing from Douglas County, Kan., officials about how they handled problems with jail crowding after voters there rejected a jail expansion measure in 2018.
The Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition organized the trip and meetings with Douglas County officials and invited members of Benton and Washington counties' criminal justice coordinating committees and others to participate in person or via Zoom. District Judge Terra Stephenson sat in on some of the Zoom sessions and the Washington County prosecuting attorney's office had a representative at the meetings in Lawrence, Kan.
Washington County officials are considering a pair of jail expansion projects. A $20 million project would add 232 beds and space in booking, medical, administrative and storage area in response to needs demonstrated during the covid-19 pandemic. The second project is an expansion of the more traditional jail housing areas with an estimated cost being put at $96 million at a recent meeting.
Benton County is proposing a $240 million jail and courts expansion project. Both counties would use a sales tax increase to pay for the projects.
Douglas County officials proposed a $44 million jail expansion in 2018 to add about 180 beds to the 185-bed jail, according to information from the county. Douglas County also proposed building an $11 million crisis center for people with mental health needs as part of the same ballot question. The county said a 0.5% sales tax would pay for the construction and operation of the facilities.
Sarah Plinsky, Douglas County administrator, said the jail was so chronically crowded the county was spending more than $1 million a year housing detainees in other county jails in Kansas.
County officials misread the degree of support for a jail expansion, she said. In May 2018, about 67% of voters said no to the jail expansion and crisis center plan, according to information from Douglas County.
"We were naive about how easily we could get a jail expansion passed," Plinsky said. "We thought it would be easy to get it passed. It didn't."
Plinsky said opposition to the jail didn't seem to extend to the crisis center and county officials quickly crafted a stand-alone plan that voters approved in November 2018. The $12 million crisis center includes a "campus" with a crisis center, short-term transitional housing and more permanent housing to support those who need services. The facility is supposed to be fully open this year.
Lance Johnson, Washington County justice of the peace for District 1, is chairman of the Quorum Court's Jail/Law Enforcement/Courts Committee. Johnson said he believes a jail expansion is necessary and he plans to have an ordinance putting the proposal on the November ballot when the committee meets in July.
"I was at the sheriff's breakfast this morning and I heard the number of pre-trial detainees topped 500 for the first time ever," Johnson said. "I heard that number and it just jumped out at me. I believe we need to move forward with the jail expansion. If you're going to have mental health programs and training programs for detainees, you've got to have some space for it. Right now, we don't have any space for it."
Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett, chairman of Washington County's Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, said he thinks the county needs to move forward on both the jail expansion and with alternative programming. Durrett said the programs will reduce crowding and make the courts system operate more efficiently.
"I don't think the two are necessarily tied together and they're also not mutually exclusive," Durrett said. "If you do the jail expansion, I don't think it eliminates the need for all those other programs."
Bob Tryanski, director of behavioral health projects for Douglas County, briefed the Justice Reform Coalition group on the crisis center and on ways to provide services to people with mental health issues that can help them avoid incarceration. He also said he thinks voters made a mistake in blindly opposing any jail expansion.
Tryanski said the Douglas County jail today "is a worse place than it was five years ago" for people with mental health issues.
"Be very careful of just a simple 'Jail. No.' campaign," he said.