BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Sheriff Shawn Holloway at the Benton County Sheriff's Office told the County Finance Committee about his funding concerns at their meeting on Sept. 26. The Benton County jail was built in 1995 and designed to hold 650 inmates. Today, it averages 749.
District 11 Justice of the Peace Justin Todd says, “There are times when 100 to 150 inmates at a time are actually sleeping on sleds on the floor. So this is an issue that's going to continue to happen, because, of course, we live in a growing county and growth isn't slowing down.”
The county is looking to add another pod with an additional 300 beds, but that comes with a hefty price tag. In the PowerPoint slide at the meeting, the cost of operations are:
- 100 Inmates per year- $1,945,000
- 200 Inmates per year- $3,890,000
- 250 Inmates per year- $4,862,500
- 300 Inmates per year- $5,835,000
Based on an inmate cost of $53.31 per inmate per day.
“That'd be an additional $5.8 million in operating costs every year. So that's a recurring expense. That's not a one-time expense. And with Benton County's budget, we just don't have that room for that type of hit on a reoccurring budget,” Todd explained.
A big focus for the county’s September finance committee meeting is finding the revenue to fund the project.
“That's a yearly ongoing cost to operate that facility, we can't do that today. So if we move forward with this project, then I'm not going to be able to operate that building. Because if we do, we're going to spread our employees so thin that we're going to have lawsuits coming left and right from not having it staffed. We're struggling with that today,” Holloway said.
On top of that, Benton County already has a 1% sales tax.
“But the county only gets 15% of that 1%. The cities get the rest of our sales tax, along with their dedicated sales tax. And so we only have 15% of our 1%, which leaves us with not a lot of room,” Todd said.
Additionally, Todd said data shows that at the Benton County Jail has a majority of felons in the jail.
“There are very few misdemeanors, and then even low-risk felons are also being released just to keep up with the capacity. But what this is causing, is people are going back out into the community, even felons, and possibly re-offending. Which for them is creating additional charges and fines, which keeps them in the cycle. They kind of get caught up with their fines, but it also creates more victims out in the community, from the real offenses,” Todd explained.
Last year, the Quorum Court looked at a study of the jail population along with inmates that were booked into jail, and they found that on average an inmate had been through the county jail 17 times.
Todd explains that the lack of real apprehension which would usually deter criminals is lacking now that the jail is not holding certain offenders.
“That's how it's really putting pressure on our criminal justice system. The judges can't always go through with the accountability they want to go through with, because they understand our jails hold the crowd,” Explained Todd.
Since the jail is a capital project, the county will look at other options and will have to complete a budget by the end of the year.
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