Sebastian County Sheriff pushes ‘Good Time’ program

story by Aric Mitchell
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Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck announced a number of cost saving initiatives at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Sebastian County Quorum Court.

Among them was a new “Good Time” program that allows for the early release of non-violent offenders contingent to good behavior. The plan is designed to slice $248,000 in expenses out of the annual budget through the reduction of bed space by 505 days.

Before the new program, good behavior considerations were limited to every 91 days. After implementation, non-violent offenders will be up for review after 30 days.

“I want to make it clear that these are non-violent, non-dangerous offenders,” County Judge David Hudson interjected. “Our goal is to make sure that we keep inmates, who present a danger to society, behind bars where they belong. In fact, I would prefer it if we could get these non-violent offenders into some kind of treatment plan.”

Hollenbeck also revealed that the county is in talks with Louisiana officials to transfer inmates to out-of-state facilities and cut back on overcrowding. In addition to these changes, patrol officers are now assigned jurisdiction to specific beats throughout the county in a measure to cut gas expenditures.

To show the effects, Hollenbeck said January’s gas costs, while priced at a high of $2.81 per gallon, totaled $13,524. In February, despite a 40-cent price hike to $3.21 per gallon, the department managed to cut that total to $10,994. Prior to the new Sheriff taking office, the Adult Detention Center had experienced a 2006-2010 loss of around $2.3 million.

While the 2011 budget still shows a shortfall of approximately $1.1 million, court members are encouraged.

“I just want to thank Sheriff Hollenbeck for implementing these changes to make the department more fiscally responsible,” said Justice Linda Murry.

Hollenbeck, however, diverted praise to the court for supporting him and to his staff for helping with idea planning and implementation.

“This isn’t a job that anyone can do alone,” he said.

Also Tuesday night, more details for the planned Emergency Operation Center started to emerge as project coordinator and Office Director of Emergency Management Tanya Roberts-Young revealed more information about the facility discussed during February’s meeting.

Roberts-Young said that the EOC would be able to connect with any camera in the area that carries an IP address. The facility is similar to one in Minneapolis, Minn., that links to more than 700 cameras from all over the community into one location, enabling administrators to see and support emergency response personnel in real time.

In other news, Roberts-Young tendered her resignation following the EOC update and received commendations from each of the court members via resolution for her 7 years of service with Sebastian County. Also, the court struck down a proposed 5% pay increase for the part-time position of Sebastian County Law Librarian. However, the position will still receive a 2% increase.

The next meeting of the Sebastian County Quorum Court is scheduled for April 19.