Payment of invoices the county sends the state for holding its inmates in the Garland County Detention Center has sped up, according to information attached to Monday night's Garland County Finance Committee meeting agenda.
The state remitted $65,828 to the county June 24 for January, February and March invoices, a quicker turnaround then the $190,000 reimbursement payment received March 17 for invoices dating back to the previous August.
The Arkansas Department of Correction generates initial invoices every month that reflect the length of each of its inmates stay in county jails during the previous month. Counties verify the invoices based on their information and return them to the ADC for payment.
Invoices the county submitted May 6 and June 10 for April and May reimbursements totaling $50,960 have yet to be paid. The ADC was invoiced July 14 for the $65,156 June reimbursement. The state pays counties a $28 daily fee per inmate, a sum Garland County officials said didn't cover the $39 daily cost of housing an inmate in the old detention center that closed in June.
According to the Association of Arkansas Counties, outstanding reimbursements totaled $3.8 million statewide at the start of the 2016 fiscal year July 1. The state owed $6.4 million before the final round of fiscal year 2015 payments in June.
"Per the governor's promise, (payments) are getting much more timely," Sheriff Mike McCormick told the Finance Committee last month.
A new law that takes effect in October will further expedite the process, requiring the ADC to remit payment within five business days of receiving a county's verification invoice. It also changes the current protocol that prevents counties from invoicing the ADC until inmates are transferred to a state facility. The ADC can be invoiced on a monthly basis after October.
Payments are contingent on available funding, but the $24.8 million the Legislature appropriated for county jail reimbursements for the current fiscal year was assigned to the top spending category of the funding formula used to balance the state's budget.
The placement gives the payments priority over other appropriations, whereas previous reimbursement appropriations had been relegated to a lower rank.
State inmates accounted for 56 of the 270 inmates the county had in custody this week, Chief Deputy of Correction Mark Chamberlain, the detention center's lead administrator, said. Of those, 26 were on parole or probation holds, and seven were awaiting transfer to state facilities after receiving felony sentences of four years or less.
Fifteen were awaiting transfer to serve felony sentences of five years or longer. No state inmates currently in county custody have been at the detention center longer than four months, according to a recent backup list the ADC provided the county. It showed 2,696 state inmates were being held in county jails this week, including 263 women.
Chamberlain said the ADC count at the previous detention center had reached as high as 70, accounting for 35 percent of its 200-inmate capacity. He said the count in the new jail has held steady at about 45 male inmates.
They are held in housing unit F, the dormitory-style setting with no secure cells that can house up to 64 inmates, Chamberlain said.
Female state inmates are held in housing unit A with all of the facility's female charges. Chamberlain said the female population isn't large enough to justify segregating state inmates from those being held on misdemeanor charges or serving misdemeanor sentences. Six female state inmates were in county custody this week.
The 270 inmate count reported last week is up from the 248 McCormick announced in early July. Current staff levels can accommodate 346 inmates.
Local on 08/01/2015