WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — At the Washington County City Services meeting, many people, including former employees, volunteers, and residents came out and spoke in favor of keeping the current Northwest Arkansas Community Corrections Center.
This comes as Washington County terminated its lease agreement with the Arkansas Community Corrections (ACC) for the women's correctional treatment facility in response to the state allegedly not doing enough about jail overcrowding issues in the county.
During a Washington County Quorum Court meeting in May, Judge Patrick Deakins announced plans to reclaim the center for county use. It used to be the Washington County Jail.
"This is about space. It's not about money. And it's not about trying to pick a fight with the state. It's about space," Deakins said. "And so either we need the facility to use that space. Once again, it's a taxpayer-funded facility. Or we would like some decent amount of market value rent."
In an email to justices of the peace with the subject line "Keeping you informed," Deakins said a notice of termination letter was sent to ACC on March 29. Deakins said in the email that while the lease termination serves as a nine-month notice of closing the facility, renegotiating the lease is a possibility.
"The state has failed to live up to its responsibilities of providing enough prison beds. So while we have 100 plus inmates sleeping on the floor, we're also faced with the reality that we have 100 plus state prisoners that are sitting in our jail waiting on a prison bed at the state level," Deakins said. "We cannot continue to let our people, our citizens, or our officers suffer in that facility with no end in sight. That's the definition of insanity."
The center currently operates as a women's correctional facility. According to its website, it has 114 beds. Dina Tyler with the Arkansas Department of Corrections told 5NEWS that around 97 people work at the facility, and they have space in a facility in West Memphis where residents would move to.
"The prison here is not like other prisons," Justice of the Peace Beth Cogar said. "Women get treatment for their addiction. They get mentored by people from the community. They learn how to budget, to balance their checkbook. They take parenting classes."
Cogar emphasized how important it is to have these resources that would stay in the county.
"This is a treatment center, and we do not need to lose a treatment center," she said. "Also, we're not expanding beds, these beds are already here. They're not costing us any money, really... For the judge to take that approach is unreasonable."
According to the lease attached to the letter, the state agreed to pay $1 a year to Washington County in exchange for maintaining the facilities and running it as a community correction center for women.
"It was the perfect place to really see how treatment can be offered in an environment like that," Whitney Payne, who worked as a substance abuse program leader at the center for 7 years, said. "I don't know if you could ever describe a prison as magical. But that place is pretty magical."
She said she's seen the facility change so many lives.
"That place changed my life, changed the way that I saw people," Payne said. "It changed the way that I interacted with people, changed the way that I viewed substance use disorder, and how that intersects with the criminal justice system."
On June 3, the county services committee voted yes on a resolution to support the Northwest Arkansas Community Corrections Center. It will go to the Quorum Court on June 20.
The state has until December to decide if they want to negotiate a lease with the county.
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