BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — The Benton County Jail doesn’t have enough room for all the inmates it has.
Benton County taxpayers voted against a jail expansion, and the sheriff's office is still dealing with overcrowding.
"Our jail is made to hold a maximum of 669 prisoners. and that's if everybody is behaving ... They recommend [holding] about 580 ... We're sitting at 719," said Chief Deputy Meyer Gilbert.
On Tuesday, the Bentonville Planning Commission approved a waiver for the county to add jail facilities such as a medical clinic and sally port: an oversized garage where officers bring inmates in and out of jail.
Right now, the medical clinic only has one exam room, a pharmacy, and one holding cell.
Gilbert said the new clinic will be 1,420 square feet and have three exam rooms, two dental exam rooms, one triage room, and a general exam room.
The sally port will be able to host three additional cars, and the pharmacy is set to be about 700 square feet according to Gilbert.
On top of that, the sheriff's office says it wants to prioritize mental health with two exam rooms set aside for it.
"There's such a large need for that among our inmate base. Right now we have one little room for the office and the facility to sit and talk with the inmates. It's inadequate," Gilbert recalled.
While these new facilities will help, it doesn’t relieve any pressure from the overcrowding problem. That’s an issue the sheriff’s office is going to keep working on.
Gilbert says the quorum court allocated $2.7 million for this project and the department will break ground on the facilities in August... with hopes of wrapping up construction in May 2025
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