by LAREIGN WARD, Press Argus-Courier Staff Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:33 AM CDT
The Crawford County Detention Center will construct a 24-bed expansion after the quorum court gave full approval to the project Monday night.
Crawford County Judge John Hall said he received a letter Monday afternoon from the 21st Judicial District Criminal Detention Facility Review Committee in Little Rock approving the plans for the expansion, which will improve conditions in the chronically overcrowded jail.
The quorum court approved the use of $250,000 in drug forfeiture money to go toward the jail expansion, meaning county taxpayers will not be funding any part of the expansion.
During the night's earlier budget committee meeting, Hall announced the plans had been approved by Little Rock, prompting sighs of relief from justices of the peace.
Hall said the next step is deciding if the county can act as its own contractor or will have to take outside bids. He said he hoped to have that and other details worked out by October's quorum court meeting.
The expansion was originally proposed in July by Chief Deputy Ron Brown, who said the 24-bed expansion would cut down on high costs of transporting inmates to other counties, as Crawford County is under a court order not to exceed the current 64-bed maximum. While warning this would not be a permanent fix, Brown said it should at least solve some short-term problems by cutting roughly in half the number of inmates transported out-of-county.
The project received the go-ahead from the local jail board review committee before being submitted to Little Rock as the final hurdle before the full $250,000 could be allotted. The estimated cost of the project is about $196,000, plus $15,000 in architectural and engineering fees, meaning there may be some money left over from the $250,000 allotment.
Jail Administrator Jeff Marvin said the extra room will be made by converting three of the four exercise yards into cells, with inmates rotated through the remaining yard.
Hall estimates the jail expansion will be completed sometime early next year, probably in February.
"I thought we weren't going to get (approval) in time for tonight, but it came today," Hall said after the meeting adjourned. "We are very pleased to get the approval from them."
Also Monday, the quorum court approved a request from Brown to move $37,100 from the sheriff's department grants account to a line item for inmate housing. In a letter to the budget committee, Brown said he wished to take the money from the $40,000 that existed in the grant fund, leaving $2,900 that's been previously committed to another project.
Last month, Brown told the quorum court he would need about $80,000 in additional money to pay for inmate housing the rest of the year, as the previously allotted $60,000 went so quickly. Because of a tight budget, the JPs were only able to give Brown the money to pay June's bill of $8,985. While the added $37,100 still won't be enough to make it the rest of the year, it will allow the jail to pay some more bills.
The current jail was built in 1989, and county residents have rejected two separate measures to increase the sales tax and build a new facility.
