By Jacob Quinn Sanders
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On any given day, North Little Rock houses about 25 of its prisoners outside Pulaski County.
The city has spent on average more than $17,000 a month since late April keeping some of its chronic but lesser offenders in jail in neighboring Faulkner County.
The reason is simple: These are crime suspects whom the crowded Pulaski County jail likely wouldn’t take, people charged with lesser crimes like commercial burglary, possession of a controlled substance or carrying a weapon. Without enough open jail space in Pulaski County, suspects accused of nonviolent offenses often are released without spending any time in jail.
“This is not a permanent solution,” North Little Rock Chief of Police Danny Bradley said of the Faulkner County arrangement. “But it is a partial solution for now, and I think it’s working.” The city still pays its share of the $2 million that county municipalities pay to use the Pulaski County jail. Yet, North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays said the extra $70,620 spent through Aug. 27 from his police budget on the Faulkner County arrangement is worth it.
“A lot of it is in things you can’t necessarily measure,” Hays said. “It’s not statistics or any sense of relief, and it doesn’t keep costs down, for sure. Peace of mind. Probably the best name for it is peace of mind.” Bradley and Hays said police morale is up, and judges have more latitude to dole out what they believe are proper punishments. A judge can order a troublesome defendant to jail rather than issue a fine that might not get paid. And instead of getting no more than a citation and being sent on their way after their arrests, suspects caught in North Little Rock now more often have to try to post bond to gain their freedom.
“That’s peace of mind right there,” Hays said. “The ultimate sanction, which has been to some degree unavailable, is removing someone’s liberty.” A man arrested in North Little Rock in June went to jail in Faulkner County charged with theft of property and 20 counts of breaking and entering. Another arrested in the city nine days earlier had failed to appear for court hearings nine times. He ended up in jail in Faulkner County, as well.
It is unlikely Pulaski County would have had room for either one.
In July, 13 people arrested in North Little Rock spent the entire calendar month in the Faulkner County jail at a cost of $930 each - $12,090 for the baker’s dozen.
Faulkner County Sheriff Karl Byrd said about 200 of his 450 jail beds, on average, are available for prisoners. The jail opened in August 2006.
“Right now I’m in a position to help and happy to do it,” he said.
North Little Rock gets neither a discount nor charged a premium, he said. The $30 a day that North Little Rock pays per inmate, he said, is the same as other Faulkner County cities pay. Some agencies do pay a little more, one example being the U.S. Marshals Service, which pays $50.
Factoring in staff, food, utilities - Byrd said he just about breaks even on the North Little Rock prisoners.
“It’s not a moneymaking venture for us, I’ll tell you that much,” he said.
The Pulaski County jail’s budget provides for 880 inmates. Jail officials say they wish they could house all of the county’s inmates. “It’s money,” sheriff’s office spokesman John Rehrauer said. “It’s staffing. It’s facilities. That’s the real problem. If the roof is fixed on the old jail and we can hire appropriate staff, we can open 160 beds. But without money, it can be very tight.” No other city in Pulaski County has followed North Little Rock and entered into a similar agreement, though Little Rock police, who arrest the largest share of criminal suspects in central Arkansas, are studying such a plan. Meantime, the city’s Board of Directors is considering filing suit to force the county to take more prisoners.
“Right now, we’re just watching North Little Rock, gathering some of our own information and seeing where that takes us,” Little Rock Police Department spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said.
The arrangement, however, does mean more work for North Little Rock officers.
When the prisoners have to return to Pulaski County for court hearings, they are picked up and dropped off in North Little Rock police cars rather than in the usual county transport vans driven by a deputy sheriff.
Every day, North Little Rock police officers compare records with Faulkner County deputies to make sure the right prisoners are in the right places.
An officer freshly on duty is more likely to drive a prisoner to Faulkner County than one nearing the end of a shift, in part to keep overtime costs down. Police officers track court appearances to make sure no one misses a hearing - a function jails normally do.
“Normally all this logistical stuff is not something we would be doing,” Bradley said. “I’ve had a little bit of apprehension that someone would get lost in the system. That hasn’t happened to us yet.” The Pulaski County sheriff’s office has agreed to handle booking paperwork, which, because of a quirk in the record-keeping system, shows the prisoners taken to Faulkner County as being booked into the Pulaski County jail.
And it’s more than a handful of inmates at a time going to Faulkner County.
From April 20, when the prisoner transports to Faulkner County began, through May 31, 86 North Little Rock prisoners spent time in the Faulkner County jail. In June, it was 75. In July, 52. August saw 66 North Little Rock prisoners in Faulkner County’s jail. So far in September, 38 have been there.
Some prisoners have been counted more than once because they spent parts of at least two calendar months in the jail.
The payoff in the Faulkner County arrangement is that North Little Rock officers don’t see people they just arrested back out on the streets before they even write their arrest reports, the chief said.
“And that means the same people don’t get an opportunity to commit more crimes,” Bradley said. “If crime doesn’t go down, which is not something we’ve seen as of yet - violent crime actually seems to be increasing - at least it’s not the same people out there doing this over and over again.” Bradley and Hays said North Little Rock was forced to make an arrangement on its own rather than wait for a regional consensus on a jail plan to permanently solve the problem.
“The time comes where you have to look for your own solution,” Bradley said. “You can’t just sit back and wait for something to get settled by all the other cities. We had our own problems.” Hays said the Faulkner County jail decision was simple to make because it fit with part of his civic philosophy.
“We don’t like people doing bad things,” he said, “and we’re willing to pay extra to see that [doesn’t] happen.”
Copyright 2007 The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette