Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Court discusses jail overcrowding, overtime once again

Overcrowding and overtime were two questions the Nevada County Quorum Court addressed at its August meeting.

Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown told the court, in the Aug. 11 meeting, the county had no such problems to his knowledge.

Justice of the Peace Gary Lewis said the problem could be liability down the road on overtime. He asked if all county employees signed time sheets.

Nevada County Clerk Julie Stockton said they do, with checks being issued based on the time sheets. The jail, she added, keeps its own time sheets.

"I don't know what else we could do," Lewis said. "To do our job better, we could use quarterly reports, but monthly reports wouldn't hurt."

Stockton said the only departments paid hourly are road and bridge and solid waste. With the exceptions of the deputies at the Nevada County Sheriff's Office, all others are salaried.

Brown said the road and bridge crew tries not to work overtime. He said he cuts a lot of trees and limbs himself to prevent having to call the road and bridge workers.

He added there is some overtime in solid waste, but not much. The workers have lines on their time sheets they're required to sign to signify they worked the hours shown.

"How do we know if we have an overtime problem if we don't get reports?" Lewis asked.

The easiest way to inform the court, Brown said, would be to give them copies of the time sheets in their monthly packets.

Some employees, Brown continued, take comp time instead of overtime, though they get time and a half for comp time, as it is paid for overtime. What makes it bad, he said, is when three or four workers want to take off at the same time during the summer to cut hay.

"This leaves us short-handed," he said, "but it's not really a problem. We get by."

The employees, Brown said, must request comp time instead of overtime.

Employees with the road and bridge and solid waste departments turn in their time cards on Wednesday, so they can be paid Thursday.

With the overtime situation not a problem for the county, Brown began talking about the overcrowding of the Nevada County jail.

He said the county falls under a grandfather clause and is covered.

Lewis asked if this means the prisoners don't need 43.3 square feet of space each as required under current law. He suggested the County Attorney Joe Graham and Nevada County Sheriff Steve Otwell get together and come up with a recommendation on what the court should do.

Senior Jailer Carroll Purtle said the jail auditor has told the NCSO what it's doing is all right.

The questions on overtime and overcrowding came from information from Duncan and Rainwater, an association of trial lawyers in Little Rock.

According to Duncan & Rainwater, the court has set capacity limits on jails under the suit Campbell vs. Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Cauldron (1980). The court ruled each prisoner must have a minimum of 43.3 square feet of living space per detainee for those inmates housed more than a week.

The sheriff, they state, will have the duty to petition the court for release of prisoners when the population exceeds this living space requirement.

However, under information provided to the quorum court, the Arkansas Jail Standards state, "Arkansas's Jail Standards differentiate between "existing" and "new" facilities with respect to the square feet of living space for each detainee. These standards are used by the State to compute the maximum jail population for each county. In addition, Arkansas's standards provide that all detainees have the right to humane treatment which provides for ... clean living quarters and a healthy safe and secure environment."

According to Mike Rainwater, the "totality" test is whether or not facilities or conditions of confinement unconstitutionally punish detainees is viewed in the light of the totality of all conditions.

"Therefore," he wrote, "overcrowding may not rise to the level of constitutional violation if there remains adequate out-of-cell recreation and exercise area within the jail facility and detainees are provided with lighting, plumbing, ventilation, fire prevention, floor space and out-of-cell activity necessary to prevent deprivations of essential food, medical care and sanitation."

Because some are incarcerated for a short time, he added, these inmates don't need as elaborate an area for recreation, libraries, exercise and other services as those who are in for long-term correctional institutions.