Sebastian County moves money, reviews prison report

story by Aric Mitchell
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It was a slow voting night at the first meeting of the Sebastian County Quorum Court for 2011, but that didn’t stop the court from passing two appropriation ordinances — one to amend the 2010 budget and another to allow for carryovers into the 2011 budget.

The first appropriation ordinance stated that $7,740 from the general fund would be moved to compensate for the negative balance in last year’s budget regarding jurors. The second appropriation ordinance covered more ground with more than $2 million moved from the general fund to cover a variety of costs. Both measures passed unanimously.

Among the most significant line item increases in the 2011 budget were buildings and improvements from a rural development grant ($128,800), Health Center expansion ($620,100), and emergency operations center construction costs ($439,098). Also, appropriations to the county road fund were $141,407, while the rural fire paging system commanded $170,976, and building and improvements to the Fort Smith Courthouse and other county facilities claimed $153,801.

Another article from Tuesday night’s meeting was a review of the Consensus Report of the Arkansas Working Group on Sentencing and Corrections. According to the report, the state of Arkansas costs for housing prison inmates has grown from $45 million to $349 million per year in the last 20 years. If left unchecked by 2021, the total could be a burden of $1.1 billion on Arkansas taxpayers.

Gov. Mike Beebe has said there will be a statewide initiative to address overcrowding in prisons. According to the Consensus Report, one of the causes of overcrowding is improper use or outright neglect of the probation system. As of 2009, the report states, approximately 59% of inmates were non-violent offenders.

By relying on probation to control non-violent inmates and allow more room in the prisons for violent offenders, the Arkansas Department of Corrections hopes to make more efficient use of space while employing a more affordable alternative to convicts, who present the least amount of risk to society.

Sebastian County Quorum Court Judge David Hudson announced there would be a meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee on Feb. 1 to address some of the concerns for local overcrowding, which proliferated in the public eye at the Dec. 22, 2010, meeting after then-Sheriff-Elect and new Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck made a plea for more deputies so the jail could better meet Department of Justice standards.

“We have to show the Department of Justice that we’re serious about moving forward to keep the federal government from coming in and taking over this jail. Anything you could come up with would certainly help out,” Hollenbeck said. His efforts led the court to reconsider its previous hiring freeze and find additional funds to add four new deputy positions.

The next meeting of the Sebastian County Quorum Court will take place 6 p.m., Feb. 15.