CRAWFORD COUNTY : Jail plans remodel to boost bed space
Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008
VAN BUREN — Crawford County jail officials have come up with a way to squeeze more prisoners into its undersized jail.
Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Ron Brown and jail administrator Capt. Jeff Marvin proposed last week to enclose three of the jail’s four exercise yards and turn them into jail cells to hold 24 prisoners. The jail was designed to hold 64 inmates.
They think the remodeling can be done for less than $ 250, 000 and would not use taxpayer money. The money would come from the county’s jail construction fund, which has been fed with drugforfeiture money.
They pitched the idea to the Quorum Court’s Budget Committee last week. Some committee members thought the presentation should have gone first to the Technology and Facilities Committee. Brown responded he thought the Budget Committee would be a good place to start because “money makes the world go ’round.” The remodeling would be a temporary solution to the jail overcrowding problem but one that will give the county some breathing room until it can come up with a permanent solution.
Some Quorum Court members appeared to like the idea.
“They have found a way to put a Band-Aid on this without getting money from the general fund,” Quorum Court member Christi Haught said. “I think we should support that.” Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune also wrote a letter supporting the idea and pointing out that the county is in immediate need of more bed space.
“I’m also in support of using the drug forfeited money that I have given the Quorum Court for a new jail or jail expansion,” he wrote.
The sheriff’s office is a long way from beginning work on the project. For one thing, the county’s Technology and Facilities Committee has to approve the project. It will hear the proposal at a meeting scheduled for July 28.
The county also would have to get the approval of state agencies before starting.
But Marvin said he’s sounded out contractors about the idea and an architect has made some drawings. They think the idea could work.
The idea has some things working in the county’s favor. A memo to the Quorum Court members from the sheriff’s office said the walls and floors already exist as well as the roof framing. The plumbing and sprinkler systems are large enough to carry the extra load of the additional prisoners and floor space.
One converted exercise yard would be large enough for 10 inmates, the second for eight inmates. The third, smaller, yard would be for six jail trustys.
Marvin said the cells would be furnished with bunk beds, metal table-seats and a commode. Prisoners would use adjoining day rooms and showers.
Architect David Conyers with Guest Reddick Architects estimated it could cost just less than $ 200, 000 to convert all three exercise yards for use as cells. He estimated the architect and engineer services, furnishings and contingencies could add up to less than $ 50, 000.
Crawford County officials wrestled with the issue of building a new jail to hold more than 200 prisoners. But they gave up in 2006 after two proposals in three years to establish sales taxes to pay for the projects were rejected by voters.
The Arkansas attorney general’s office sued Crawford County in 2005 because its jail built to hold 64 prisoners had routinely been housing more than 100. The county signed an agreement with the state to keep the jail population at the design limit or face closure.
Since then, the sheriff’s office, prosecutor and the courts have been working together to keep the jail at its designed capacity through alternatives to jailing, like home detention, paying other counties to hold some of their prisoners and allowing those sentenced to state prison to remain at large until they are called to report to prison.
Brown complained to Quorum Court members last week that it wasn’t desirable to allow people who should be in jail to roam free because they often will commit more crimes.
And paying other counties to house their prisoners is expensive. The county already has spent the $ 60, 000 budgeted this year for housing Crawford County’s prisoners in Carroll and Washington counties. Estimates now are it will cost the county about $ 160, 000 by the end of the year.
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