Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Marshal plans to increase the use of Gurdon's jail

Some people arrested by officers of the Gurdon Police Department could find themselves spending time in the Gurdon Jail.

Gurdon Marshall Don Childres said he plans to use Gurdons city jail on a regular basis in an effort to cut the costs of transporting prisoners elsewhere and as an alternative to sending people home who are being charged with minor crimes.

The one-cell jail has been available at the municipal building since the building was remodeled nine years ago, but was not used very often in the past because the Clark County Jail normally had room for Gurdon prisoners, Childres said.

Childres, who is unopposed in the November election for another two years as marshal, said Aug. 10, "Since the filing deadline is past and nobody is running against me this time, I can turn my attention to an ongoing problem  jail expenses."

He said the county jail is often too overcrowded to accommodate Gurdon prisoners. He said that even if beds are available in the surrounding area jails, it is expensive to transport the local prisoners and pay their daily lodging fees.

The existing, one-cell jail at Gurdon has a bed, a toilet, a wash basin and a drinking fountain, Childres said.

The local jail is 50 feet by 50 feet in size and designed to hold one person for 24 hours.

"Our jail is up to standards and available for short-term use. Prisoners will be able to bond out right here, just like in Arkadelphia," Childres said.

"The bondsman will have to start coming to Gurdon. We have to do something to cope with the overcrowded conditions at the Clark County Jail. And it is also expensive to buy the gasoline necessary to transport prisoners to places like Hope, Texarkana or Fordyce if they even have room when we need them."

Childres said the city pays $50 a day to house prisoners in jails outside of the county. And Gurdon must pay a local officer to transport the prisoner and buy the gasoline to do so.

"In our new procedure, there will have to be an officer on duty inside of the police station the whole time someone is in our jail, but with all of the expense involved in transporting, it will end up about the same cost to house someone here," he said. "The big thing is if we use our own facility there will be less times we have to tell someone they will not go to jail because there is no place to put them.

"I expect the new policy to be especially helpful in domestic battery cases and situations where someone is intoxicated."

According to Childres, an individual charged with domestic battery can not get out of jail until they go before a judge. If the county jail is full, placing the individual in the city jail provides another way to meet the legal obligation to hold someone facing a domestic battery charge.

Childres said he has told Mayor Clayton Franklin of his plans to use the local jail more and Franklin is in favor of the change.

Childres said the expenses to transfer prisoners to Clark County Jail, when space is available, are not nearly what they are to take them elsewhere.

"Using our own jail gives us a quick alternative when there is no space at the county jail," he said.