Courthouse expansion is top capital improvement project in Craighead County in 2024  

Perhaps the most important capital improvement project in 2024 for Craighead County will be an expansion of the county’s courthouse, Judge Marvin Day told Talk Business & Politics. The $14.3 million expansion will create two new courtrooms and a tornado safe space in downtown Jonesboro, he said.

The entire project will be paid for with county funds. It’s slated to be completed in February of 2025, but work has progressed, and it could be done as early as Thanksgiving this year, he added.

One thing that Day learned when he took office was that counties in the state had been encouraged to form their own Criminal Justice Coordination Committees. Members of these committees include stakeholders in the justice system – law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, etc.

Before the COVID19 pandemic, Day attended several of these meetings. The purpose of the committees was to identify ways for each individual county to improve their criminal justice system and prioritize top needs. Day assumed he knew exactly what Craighead County needed in this regard.

He was surprised to find out he was wrong.

“I thought it would be jail space. I talked a lot with our Sheriff Marty Boyd, and it seemed like the lack of jail space was the biggest problem. It turns out our biggest shortcoming was courtroom space. The county only has one full courtroom that can handle a jury and another partial courtroom that can hold a jury,” he said.

The lack of courtroom space slows the overall justice system down, he said. Many who commit crimes are released on bond and then commit more crimes because it takes so long for them to get to trial.

At first Day was a little skeptical, but then he kept reading reports about the same people being arrested repeatedly for new crimes while they were awaiting trial on previous ones.

The county divides it’s sales tax between the county general fund, the county road fund, and the county capital improvement fund. The project will be paid from the county general and county capital coffers.

“We’re lucky. We’ve done a good job of saving money and we can pay for this project,” he said. 

The safe room will be able to handle up to 500 people if a tornado strikes the city, Day said. Other space in the expansion is also being developed. It could serve as office space or could be fitted into another courtroom.

Another problem the county has dealt with recently is its Juvenile Detention Facility. The county is one of the few that still operates an underage facility and many of the youths there are from other counties.

The facility can house up to 60 youths, but for years it has only been staffed to handle 48. Day met with law enforcement and local school officials and realized there was a problem, he said.

The first step was to get funding for another four staff members. After that, the county had to institute a policy of prioritizing youths in the county as opposed to taking them in from surrounding ones.

One of, if not the main job of the county judge is to build and maintain the county’s road system. Last year, the county was able to spend $3 million more on projects than in the previous several years due to constraints connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He expects that work to continue unabated into the new year.

“I’m happy with where we are in county government. Everybody is here to work. Everybody is here to serve the people,” he said.