CHARLESTON, Ark. — On Oct. 31 Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the purchase of land in Franklin County to serve as the site of a future state prison.
In a press release and radio interview, Sanders explained that the project boasts around 3,000 beds, hoping to alleviate the state's prison bed shortage.
In the wake of the announcement, 5NEWS spoke to county leaders from Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley to gauge their thoughts on the prison's potential to ease the prison bed shortage in the state and how it may affect their counties.
Crowding in jails is a statewide issue, due to a backlog of inmates waiting for a bed in state prisons. Washington County Judge Patrick Deakins said the county has hundreds of people in their jail sleeping on the floor.
"We're really concerned about who we have in that facility, but also who we don't have in the facility, who might be more subject to incarceration settings we don't have anywhere to put them," Deakins said.
Deakins said that due to the prison bed shortage, the responsibility of housing some inmates has fallen onto the counties.
"We're holding what the state's responsibilities are, and anytime at any given moment in Washington County, that's about 150 to 200 individuals those are taking up precious bed space that we need in our facility."
He believes the plans for the new facility in Franklin County are promising but he said he'll continue to work hard on issues back at home to ensure the larger issue at hand gets solved.
"I'm happy for the announcement. We still have to work very hard. By no means does the announcement today let us go home and put our work up," Deakins said. "We have to continue working on solutions here, locally and at the state level, with our criminal justice system, it's not a one size fits all. More prison beds, once again, is very welcome, because we've let this problem get so far behind and grow to such a magnitude that we have to do something. But this is not the fix."
Deakins estimates there are at least 3,000 people in the state waiting for prison beds right now, so the prison in Charleston would already be filled.
Benton County Judge Barry Moehring said the county's jail has been facing crowding issues for years. They aren't facing more crime in the county, but a growing population, and he's looking forward to this plan, but they still need to expand their jail.
"It was built with the idea that about this time, our population would be about 180,000-190,000 people. We're over 300,000," Moehring said. "This would have no impact on our need to expand our jail. What it does, it'll have some impact on freeing up some space in the jail for folks who should probably serve some time now."
Moehring added that he's glad to hear the plan, and he appreciates the work put into it.
"If we can move our inmates who are ready to be in the state prison, we can move them quicker to the state prison, then that opens up more bed space for us," Moehring said.
In Logan County, Sheriff Jason Massey said their new jail was only built five years ago and has already reached capacity. He said they have around 20 inmates sentenced to state prison and two inmates sentenced to the Arkansas State Hospital, and that the Charleston prison would help them with their crowding issues.
"A new prison is something that we've requested for a long time," Massey said. "A 3,000-bed prison is going to help out a lot on the backlog of prisoners, and I also believe it's going to help out on help with our prosecutors and making plea deals and plea offers to inmates."
However, the news came as a shock to him. Massey said he's having mixed feelings on the decision as he didn't think it would be around his area, only about 20 minutes from Logan County.
"With everything good, there's always, you know, there's always the other side of that, and that one thing is we did not expect it to be in our area," Massey said. "When you have a large 3,000 bed jail with approximately 800 employees coming into our area, I'm not sure where they're going to get them all. We will not be able to compete with state jobs."
He also knows lots of residents he serves are not happy with these plans.
"It's just the concerns of it being in our area. I just wish there were some town hall meetings and things like that to really educate the public on what's coming," Massey said. "There will be a reputation of having a prison and that's just a reputation a lot of people in our area don't want."
The Board of Corrections will have to vote to approve the prison site before construction on the project begins.
Charleston Mayor Mike Baumgartner said the board will not vote on the proposed prison site at its next meeting on Monday, Nov. 4, which will be before the residents' town hall.
Franklin County Judge Rickey Bowman said the town hall, which will take place on Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. in the Charleston High School Gymnasium, will allow concerned residents to voice their concerns.
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