The Arkansas Department of Corrections issued a public notice for submissions Friday for communities interested in donating land for the construction of a new maximum-security prison facility that will house 1,000 inmates.
Completed questionnaires must be received by the Department of Corrections no later than February 9, and proposals will be evaluated by the Department of Corrections and submitted to the Arkansas Board of Corrections for selection. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said Friday it was too early to say when a selection might be made.
Arkansas Department of Corrections Secretary Solomon Graves told the Arkansas Board of Corrections he wants the site selection process for the 1,000-bed prison facility to run for 90 days to allow local elections to play out before a location is chosen.
The Department of Corrections is looking for a location that is 100 acres, not prone to flooding, in close proximity to a hospital and adequate utilities, isn't within 60 miles of an existing correctional facility and is located in a sufficient population center for staff recruitment and retention.
The new facility is expected to benefit the local economy significantly by bringing in 370 employees with the annual payroll of approximately $21,000,000.
Last week the Board of Corrections authorized the Department of Corrections to begin the site selection process, and suggested it might look into finding prisons the state can contract with to address overcrowding.
The Board of Corrections will create three committees that will conduct studies into various topics surrounding prison expansion. The move came after Graves told board members expansion of the North Central Unit and the proposed construction of a new 1,000-bed prison facility wouldn't adequately address future needs.
Graves said recent projects show if the inmate population continues to grow by 1.3% annually, the correction system will need an increase of 2,200 beds by 2032.
"This means we would need 19,776 beds," he said. "That means we would need another 1,000 beds, and this includes the North Central Expansion and the additional facility."
Jail expansion has come up repeatedly over the past year, with several legislators calling on the General Assembly to use some of its recent $1.6 billion surplus to build another facility.
Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin, who was elected attorney general in Tuesday's general election, emphasized during his recent campaign the need for stricter guidelines, a new prison and a revamped parole system to fight rising crime across the state. He said if elected he would work with legislators to get a new prison facility built.
Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, R-Paragould, and Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, said Griffin and state legislators have discussed Griffin's ideas for criminal justice reform and that announcements are expected in the coming weeks.
"There has been discussions of prison capacity, and the lack of prison capacity, and the fact that we don't have enough prison beds for our most serious violent offenders," Gazaway said Thursday. "There will be discussions about prison capacity during the next legislative session, but the details are still in the works."