$160 million, 2,050-bed prison pitched as inmate numbers rise
BY ANDY DAVIS
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
NORFORK, Ark. — Faced with a soaring inmate population, the Arkansas Department of Correction on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to build a 2,050-bed prison at a cost of more than $160 million.
The prison would be the most expensive in state history and top the 1,725-bed Cummins Unit near Grady as the state’s largest.
Department of Correction Director Larry Norris said it would help bridge a growing gap between the number of inmates serving time and beds available at the state’s 20 prisons and work-release centers.
Norris presented the idea at a Board of Corrections meeting Tuesday at the Norfork River Resort. If the board approves the idea, the department would seek money for construction during next year’s legislative session.
But with state agencies facing budget cuts amid a reduced revenue forecast, some board members acknowledged that the new prison could be a tough sell.
In a phone interview, House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, agreed.
“With a downturn in the economy right now, I’d be really skeptical of where they’re going to get the money,” Petrus said.
Norris said the department doesn’t yet know where the money for construction would come from or where the prison would be built.
If money is approved next year, the prison could be finished by August 2014, Norris said. If the department uses inmate labor, it could save about $7 million, but the project would take up to two years longer.
The cost could rise depending on the soil conditions at the site and whether water and sewer lines are available, officials said.
Officials said the prison would employ about 500 people, but they didn’t have an estimate on the operating cost.
Corrections Board Chairman Benny Magness questioned how the department would find the employees to staff such a large prison. That’s been a problem, he said, about areas such as east Arkansas and Pine Bluff that have concentrations of prisons.
“There’s only so many people who want to be a prison guard,” Magness said. He asked the department to present a proposal next month for two 1,000-bed prisons that could each be expanded to 1,500 beds in the future.
After the meeting, he said he wasn’t enthusiastic about building more prison space.
“It’s just a shame that we have to keep asking for the money,” Magness said. “It’s important for us to keep looking for alternative sentencing and ways to run as efficiently as we can.” Board member Ken Jones said he supports building a prison, but he echoed Magness’ sentiment.
“It’s not an ideal that I cherish,” he said.
Since June 1998, the state’s inmate population has grown by 37 percent, from 10,689 to 14,705 as of Tuesday.
With 13,636 available prison beds, the number of inmates in county jails awaiting prison space has been growing, reaching 1,051 as of Tuesday.
The gap will narrow in the next two years, as the department completes an 854-bed addition to its Ouachita River Unit near Malvern. But as the prison population continues to increase, so will the gap, reaching a projected 2,600 by 2015.
County sheriffs complain that the backup of inmates takes up needed jail space and, since the state pays only $28 per inmate per day, the inmates strain county jail budgets.
In Pulaski County, where the jail is closed to most nonviolent offenders because of a lack of space, the prison backup accounted for 131 of the 940 inmates in the jail Tuesday.
“The more we can get out of here, the better off we’ll be,” sheriff’s office spokesman John Rehrauer said.
Board member Jones, who is also the Union County sheriff, said the backup is “within a couple hundred of being as bad as it was in any time in history.” While sheriffs haven’t yet raised the alarm, he said, “I know that many of them are struggling with crowding issues, and this backup adds to that issue.” In a phone interview, state Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne, who is often involved with prison-related legislation, said he is disappointed that the department is proposing another prison and he doesn’t know if he will support it. He said he’d prefer to invest in treatment programs and give corrections officials more flexibility to release inmates who have been rehabilitated.
“This is a problem you’re never going to build your way out of,” Luker said.
In 2004 and 2005, the backup of state prisoners in county jails fell as the Correction Department added hundreds of prison beds and gained expanded powers to release inmates early. The 300-bed Omega Technical Violator Center in Malvern, which opened in 2005, also helped, taking in parole violators who would have otherwise gone back to prison.
But since then, the backup has been growing, approaching the levels it reached in 2003, when it averaged 1,130.
In addition to building the prison, Norris proposed building housing for 300 trusty inmates at the Cummins Unit at a cost of $5.4 million.
The board didn’t take any action on the proposals Tuesday. The department is expected to present options for funding next month.
Copyright 2008 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.