Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Announcement Forthcoming On New Prison

MIKE ROSS

STATE SENATOR, DISTRICT 36

A dozen Arkansas communities have expressed interest in being the site of a new medium security state prison.

Civic leaders say that a prison provides employment even during periods of economic uncertainty.

These are the cities that have been submitted letters expressing interest in a state prison unit: Prescott, Ashdown, Malvern, Corning, Star City, Warren, Russellville, Parkin, Garland City, McGehee-Dermott, Camden and Pine Bluff.

A spokesman for the Arkansas Board of Correction and Community Punishment said that board members hoped to announce the location of the new prison at the September meeting. In April the board mailed letters to officials of all 75 counties in Arkansas seeking expressions of interest in locating the new prison unit.

Prison officials estimate that the prison will hire 225 people and have an annual budget of about $11 million. Eventually, the officials want to expand the unit to house inmates with special medical needs, such as geriatric prisoners, inmates with chronic disease, those who have become mentally ill and prisoners with HIV.

Among the requirements for the site that it be at least 40 acres near a major medical facility, accessible by a paved road and flat terrain.

The number of proposals encouraged prison officials. Some cities and counties have voted to issue bonds to borrow sufficient money to develop a site. Other cities have pledged to cooperate to make their joint proposals more appealing. Other proposals were hand-delivered to the correction department and have the backing of local economic developers.

The correction department operates state prison units under the oversight of the Board of Correction and Community Punishment. The number of inmates in Arkansas prison units has grown to more than 11,000 and it continues to increase, because of tougher criminal laws, longer prison sentences and improvements in law enforcement.

In a related development, a separate state agency has been negotiating with city and county officials in southeast Arkansas to take over and expand a juvenile detention facility.

The Division of Youth Services operates facilities for juvenile offenders. The juvenile justice system is different and separate from the criminal justice system in which adult offenders are processed.

Juvenile justice has traditionally emphasized treatment and rehabilitation, and relatively few numbers of problem youths required high security detention. However, increases in the number of serious and violent offenses by juveniles have created the need for more detention facilities.

Now, serious juvenile offenders are released from state jurisdiction when they turn 18. State officials have expressed an interest in expanding the southeast Arkansas facility to house serious juvenile offenders until they are 21.