The Sharp County Jail is seeing an influx of inmates after the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) has taken over two facilities in Arkansas.
In September of this year, the ADC voted to take over the Phillips County Jail and lease it until 2064, as well as a work release facility in Mississippi County.
The state had been leasing the Mississippi County work facility, but it was gifted to the ADC in September adding another 186 beds to the state’s count.
The decision to accept Phillips County came after an announcement by Phillips County Judge Clark Hall who said he would shut down the jail amid a 30 percent reduction in the staff of the Phillips County Sheriff’s Department.
Since taking office, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has pointed a focus on the expansion and construction of more housing for inmates throughout the state.
Sharp County Sheriff Shane Russell said there were 40 inmates remaining in the Phillips County Jail who have all been moved to other facilities while construction takes place.
On Nov 26, Sharp County was able to help the ADC taking more than 30 percent of the inmates who needed to be housed.
“We received a call that Phillips County Detention Center was going to be temporarily closed. They were needing to house 40 ADC sentenced inmates for 30 days,” Russell said. “We advised them we could house 15 of those inmates and they were transported to our facility.”
Due to the pre-planning by the county when laying out plans to construct the Sharp County Jail, Russell said the influx of inmates does not negatively impact operations at the jail, but will bring in per diem revenue from the state to the county.
“The only real preparing we had to do was to get more food. We keep everything else we need on hand,” Russell said. “The State will pay Sharp County $35 per inmate each day they are detained in the Sharp County Detention Center.”
If the 15 inmates stay the full 30 days, the county can expect to see an income of $15,750.
Completed in 2021, the Sharp County Detention Center is one of the newest jail facilities in the state and is a 100-bed facility.
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
