The Pulaski County Quorum Court rejected an ordinance to amend its budget to include an additional $2.2 million for the county jail's medical department Tuesday.
The sponsor of the ordinance, Quorum Court member Julie Blackwood, said she thought the ordinance had a do-pass recommendation and that the county judge had already signed off on the contract with Turn Key Health, the mental health services provider of the last six years for the facility.
Sheriff Eric Higgins said he was under that impression as well.
County Judge Barry Hyde said that when the sheriff submitted the Turn Key Health contract, operations under his supervision worked to ensure that the contract was procured properly, the terms of the agreement were lawful and the request identified the appropriate budget line item.
"What happened here is the sheriff's office signed off on an agreement with a maximum cost that exceeded its budget approved by the Quorum Court," he said after the meeting. "The agreement's $2.2 million cost exceeded their appropriation for jail-medical."
"This put the Quorum Court in a difficult position and forced them to have to make a hard decision. Members of the Quorum Court, as stewards of county funds and taxpayer dollars, weren't comfortable signing off on spending that put the cart before the horse. As a result, they did not pass the ordinance appropriating an additional $2.2 million in funds."
Blackwood and Higgins discussed how Justin Blagg, quorum court parliamentarian, said the exact amount wasn't in the contract and other justices said the 13 positions to be hired through Turn Key weren't approved.
"Page 9 of the contract has the dollar amount, not only for this year but for the next three years," Higgins said. "Page 14 has the judge's signature from February ... Those who say I tried to sneak 13 positions. They didn't work for me, they work for Turn Key."
Blackwood said after losing the funding, Turn Key will eventually have to shut down its services. Until the next budget committee meeting in the fall, there's nothing she can do.
"Why they [the Quorum Court] don't want to do mental health care for people in the jail, I don't know, because they're going to release these people out to our society."
Blackwood said the recidivism rate would go down and fewer people would return to jail if mental health care was available.
Unfortunately, there is no county crisis center for those who need mental health services and the hospital is at capacity for new patients, so they're sent to jail for help, she said.
"We have to improve mental health services in the jail, there's no question about it," Higgins said, adding that "we may not want to spend the money, but this is necessary."
A previous request the sheriff took issue with was when he asked for 26 new deputy sheriff positions and they were reduced to 13 in April because of a pending study from the Centers for Public Safety Management.
Higgins said Blagg noted that the study was supposed to be done in spring or summer of this year, but this was "never the case."
"It was supposed to be done in November of last year," he explained. "I'm a little frustrated with the lying that appears to be going on, the untruthful information that's related to the court. I think Justin needs to stay in his lane. He's supposed to be an adviser, a parliamentarian for the quorum court, not telling people how to vote."
The sheriff also noted that since 2022, the facility has had 61 attempted suicides, 1,134 suicide assessments and 106 mental health assessments to be completed that were sent from the state hospital.
"They're sitting in here, they can't get services," he said. "They're committed when they have no place to go. Then we have 200-something people who were sentenced in the facility, but 157 waiting for psychological evaluation in the facility and you're telling me that I don't need to provide additional mental health services."
Higgins also explained that the facility has more than 1,300 inmates with 200 convicted and the rest are innocent until proven guilty, so for the majority, 1,100 people in the facility, "we don't want to provide mental health services?"
"It's not that the county doesn't have the money," he said. "It's not that it's not a proven need, so why won't you provide the services? What's the underlying issue? ... I don't understand the logic. Everyone who voted no here, why did you vote no?"