Opening this up for discussion--With the Majestic sitting in ruins, this is the proposal for Garland County? Really? Id like to hear what the supporters of this page have to say: County considers pursuing ADC facility DAVID SHOWERS The Sentinel-Record A state prison could buoy economically depressed areas of the county, but it also has the potential to coopt personnel the county has recruited and trained to staff its new detention facility. The dilemma was discussed last week by the Garland County Quorum Court’s Finance Committee, which considered proposing the county as a possible site for the new prison. The Arkansas Department of Correction intends to build a 1,000 bed maximum security facility, said Shea Wilson, ADC public information officer-legislative liaison, in an email, noting that 250 jobs and a $19 million budget would come with it. Mississippi County in northeast Arkansas is the first to express interest, having submitted the only questionnaire thus far that provides the ADC with specifics about its workforce and prospective site. Mike Carraway, the ADC’s assistant director of administrative services, said in an email that he expects Jackson, Lawrence, Ouachita and Columbia counties to turn in questionnaires and other information recommending them as possible locations. Submissions must be received by Oct. 24. “If we’re going to put our name in the hat, we need to start quickly,” said Mickey Gates, District 13 justice of the peace and Finance Committee chairman. He recommended referring the matter to the Public Health, Welfare & Safety Committee for further consideration. Concerns arising from the danger a prison could pose were secondary to its potential effect on the Garland County Detention Center, the $42 million jail set to open later this year. Some on the committee cautioned that the ADC’s higher wages could bleed staff from the jail, which, Chief Deputy of Corrections Mark Chamberlain said, will require 14 deputies and four to six supervisors to staff per shift. “By having a state prison, would their payroll be such that everything Mr. Chamberlain is doing to train his people be wasted?” District 4 JP Mary Bournival asked the committee. “Would they feed into the prison, because they’re right here in the county.” Sheriff Larry Sanders acknowledged the higher pay, but said attrition embedded in state hiring policies has made the ADC’s Ouachita River Unit in Malvern an undesirable work space, causing some of its staff to defect to the county’s current detention facility. “We’ve actually added some of their people,” he told the committee. “They are paying more, but because of state restrictions, when they lose somebody, they’re not rehiring. So it’s making it more dangerous for their people, because there’s not as many staff.” Owing to its favorable topography, Mountain Pine was floated as a possible location. The committee said it’s where the economic benefit would be most profound, as the area is still reeling from the more than 300 jobs that were lost when Weyerhaeuser shuddered its veneer and plywood facility at the end of 2006. Wilson said the minimum qualifications guiding the Board of Corrections’ site selection require a mostly flat, 400-acre parcel with soil that can bear 2,500 pounds per square foot. The prison can’t be located in an environmentally or archaeological sensitive area, and it needs to be adjacent to a paved public roadway. Proximity to a hospital, utilities and a population center than can support staffing the facility are also part of the criteria, as is the availability of a postsecondary educational institution that can be used for staff development. “Our new county jail is the best one in the state,” Bournival told the committee. “I just don’t want to adversely impact all the effort that we in the county have put forth in the last three years.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 01:05:42 +0000
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