LOGAN COUNTY, Arkansas — The Logan County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) has taken to social media to raise awareness about capacity issues in their jail facility amid a state jail cell shortage.
The Logan County Detention Center was completed just five years ago and, according to Sheriff Jason Massey, has since passed with flying colors during compliance inspections from the Arkansas Jail Standards Review Committee and the U.S. Marshals.
Massey said in a statement posted to Facebook on Sept. 30 that the center boasts a "great detention staff," and that he's proud of the work they do around the clock to keep things safe, secure, and clean.
However, the center can only hold 100 inmates, and that limit is being reached more frequently.
The center is equipped with beds for 67 male inmates and 27 female inmates, along with six beds in individual cells in the booking area. Massey said that in the past few weeks, the jail has reached capacity multiple times with male inmates.
"The main reason we are reaching capacity is that we have 21 inmates sentenced to state prison and 2 inmates sentenced to the Arkansas State Hospital and they are waiting in our facility until beds open up," the release said.
LCSO highlights that this issue isn't specific to Logan County but is being experienced all across the Natural State.
"This is happening all across Arkansas as county jails fill up with inmates who have either plead guilty in a felony case, been found guilty of a felony at a trial, or have been sentenced to the Arkansas State Hospital for mental issues and there are not enough beds to place them, so they linger in county jails. We receive a reimbursement for holding these sentenced inmates, but we would rather have the Arkansas Department of Corrections come and get them," LCSO said.
The detention center also holds inmates charged in federal crimes, for which LCSO receives a higher reimbursement rate than the state. However, when capacity is reached, less federal inmates can be taken in.
Not all hope is lost as Massey explained that a solution is on the way, but it won't come quickly.
"The Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association, the Governor and the Attorney General, and our state legislature are working on these issues and a new 3,000 bed state prison is in the works but will take a while to be built," Massey said.
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