U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., was assured before embarking on his tour of the new Garland County Detention Center Thursday that pains had been taken to prevent inmates from escaping through windows.
The assurance referenced the notorious escapee Derrick Glenn Estell, who bolted to freedom through a service window in the booking area of the current jail in July 2013. Security camera video of the incident went viral and underscored the deficiencies of a facility that has lapsed into disrepair and obsolescence after being built in the 1980s for an inmate population of fewer than 90.
The new 168,000-square-foot facility's heightened capacity for containing inmates notwithstanding, Boozman came away from his half-hour tour more impressed with its potential to transform them. The first-term Republican senator said it's part of the broader pivot away from traditional methods of countering criminal behavior, practices he said have been remiss in addressing the psychological and social deficits that underlie criminal impulses.
"If you're running the same play over and over again, and it's not working, you need to do something different," the former Arkansas Razorback offensive lineman said of the prevailing criminal-justice model. "I think there is a shift, partly because it's not working. You're going to see a significant shift toward rehabilitation."
The partnership with National Park College to help inmates earn GEDs is a cornerstone of a rehabilitative effort that intends to confer the social capital many who cycle in and out of custody lack. Inmates can continue the program after they're released and receive reduced tuition at NPC if they complete their certificates.
Inmates working in the kitchen can also earn a ServSafe certification for work in commercial food service.
"It seems like the logical way to reduce the recidivism rate and actually rehabilitate people," said Boozman, who was informed by county officials conducting the tour that about 30 percent of the current jail's population doesn't have a high school education. "It does make sense to get people an education while they're here."
The prologue to the jail's inception related to Boozman by his tour guides highlighted the limitations of the current facility adjacent to the Garland County Sheriff's Department on Ouachita Avenue and the public groundswell to improve community safety.
"This was really a public effort," County Judge Rick Davis told Boozman, referring to the referendum voters passed in 2011 that imposed the sales tax that continues to finance $41.8 million in construction bonds. "It's the first time I've ever seen every group in Garland County get on board with the same thing.
"They're usually fighting with each other, but they all got together."
Sheriff Mike McCormick spoke of the dilemma posed when judges insist space be made for serial misdemeanor offenders, forcing jail officials to make the uneasy determination of who to release. Most of the more than 200 inmates at the current facility are felony offenders or are being held on felony charges.
"Somebody gets arrested 15 times for shoplifting, and the judge is sick of it," McCormick explained to Boozman. "We get emails from judges telling us that if this person isn't locked up, someone is going to be held in contempt.
"We've got 200 serious offenders. Who do we release? Judges are caught between a rock and a hard place. We're caught between a rock and a hard place. We're just trying to make the system work as best we can."
McCormick told the senator the holistic approach to public safety that informed the facility's development is a departure from what he's experienced during his more than 30 years in law enforcement.
"This is the first time in my lifetime that I've seen a bigger view taken when it comes to criminal activity," he said. "For years gone by it's been strictly, 'Lock them up.' I wanted you to see the multidimensional aspect. It's not just, 'Lock them up.'"
Boozman's tour was the second leg of an itinerary that started Thursday morning at The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce. It concluded at the Waldron Chamber of Commerce before a stop at Richmond Community College in Mena.
Deputies began training in the new detention center after last month's open house, applying the direct supervision techniques they've been drilled on since last year and acclimating to the numerous security electronic features that will allow one housing deputy to supervise up to 64 inmates.
Detention center officials expect inmates to be housed at the facility later this year but have declined to comment on a timetable for the transfer.
Local on 05/29/2015