WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition filed a lawsuit back in June against Washington County, claiming that officials misused federal COVID relief money on plans for a jail expansion.
Washington County Judge Patrick Deakins said they have plans to use almost $19 million in American Rescue Plan Act money towards the Covid Mitigation Project for the Washington County Jail.
County officials said COVID-19 has "substantially impacted the operations of the Washington County Detention Center in a variety of ways," and that the separation of diagnosed and undiagnosed detainees is inherently difficult in a crowded jail.
"Covid might be over with within our day-to-day lives out here on the streets, but covid is still very much in the existence of that facility," said Deakins. "The priority right now is the health, safety and welfare of the people in the facility. That project was never about jail expansion, and it was misconstrued and lied about from the front end, from the opponents of the idea."
Deakins said they're making updates in areas of the jail, as it's overcrowded and hard to separate COVID-19-positive inmates.
"We're going to do some things with the HVAC units down there to prevent them from spreading any kind of disease," said Deakins. "What we were looking for was smaller spaces where we could quarantine smaller groups of individuals, where, right now, that's mostly communal."
The plans originally included adding 232 more beds to the jail. Deakins said that is not the case now, and they're working to decrease that number.
"As the cost is escalated, we're removing those beds because the critical part of the project was in the actual main facility," said Deakins.
He said he believes the use of the money for this project is valid and it's what ARPA funds are intended for.
"You will be informed of this project. You will have a say in this project. Just give us a moment to get it together," said Deakins. "One of the stipulations of ARPA was to offset the effects of the COVID pandemic. So when we as a county looked around, we can understand that there are a lot of negative impacts of COVID, but it impacts us most and most consequentially within the jail facility where we're taking people's civil liberties away and making them stay in that facility."
Sarah Moore, the executive director of AJRC, said the vote for a jail expansion failed back in 2019 and that the people gave their answer. She believes the county cannot use the money for this reason.
"We know we're on the right side of this," said Moore. "We're ultimately just trying to make sure that we are abiding by the federal treasury guidelines, which we're incredibly concerned we do not have $19 million in the county coffers to pay back."
She said she knows there are other resources that could benefit Washington County more.
"There's not enough housing. The county could be a part of the solution and build housing with this money. That's eligible with this money. They can expand healthcare. That's allowed with this money," Moore said. This ARPA money, is once in a lifetime money, I mean, it could be very life changing for so many of our families."
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