Action taken by the Arkansas Board of Corrections Tuesday should see the North Central Unit of the state prison system expand significantly.
Board Chairman Benny Magness says while there had been discussion of possibly as many as an additional 600 beds, there was concern of the additional cost needed to expand the facility’s infrastructure in areas such as water, wastewater and kitchens.
Magness said the board’s vote allows Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADOC) Secretary Solomon Graves to meet with architects and engineers to develop an expansion plan. While the final plan will identify the cost of the expansion, Magness says the estimate at this stage is $30 million.
He says a driver of the cost is the different style of housing planned in the expansion.
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Magness says he anticipates construction could begin within six to nine months, with the expansion completed in 24 months.
While staffing at prison units has been a problem, Magness says that’s not the case at the North Central Unit.
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Magness says the declining population throughout southern Arkansas and the Delta, where many of the prison units are located, is a major factor in staffing. He says southern Arkansas will not support an expansion of a prison unit primarily for this reason.
Magness says the new beds at the North Central Unit will certainly be a welcome addition to the chronically overcrowded prison system.
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Needing bed space in the prison system is not a new challenge for the board and the state. While many programs have been addressed through the years to meet the challenge, Magness says expansion is the route to go at this time.
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The North Central Unit is a minimum-to-medium security facility with a current inmate capacity of 700. The unit was opened as a 100-bed facility in February 1990.
According to a ADOC spokesman, additional beds were added in 1991, 1993, 1997, 2010 and 2013.
The unit is located 4 miles north of Calico Rock on more than 700 acres, 10 of which are contained within the perimeter fence.
On portions of the land, hay is grown to feed livestock, and other acreage is designated for a vegetable garden. The produce is used for inmate consumption.
Inmates can also work with the eight honeybee boxes or the 2,400 apple trees on prison property.
According to the Corrections Department website, the unit has a staff of 153.
The ADOC operates 20 facilities in 12 Arkansas counties with a total inmate count of about 17,146 according to a report issued Feb. 2. In the same report, there were 716 (COVID-19 capacity) inmates housed in the North Central Unit, meaning the unit was at 102.3% of capacity.
The department’s total budget is approximately $500 million.
Various programs are offered in prisons throughout the state. Inmates in the North Central Unit can enroll in classes that lead toward completion of a GED.
The unit also participates in the Paws-in-Prison program allowing inmates to work with animals who are then adopted.
The prison near Calico Rock is the exclusive home for the Department of Correction’s horse breeding program. The program supplies horses to other units within the state’s prison system to carry out a number of tasks.
The horses are used to provide security both on prison grounds and at off-prison sites where inmates are working.
Guards ride the horses allowing them access to areas that would be difficult, if not impossible, to reach in a vehicle.
Inmate crews are provided by the North Central Unit to work on the grounds of various public facilities.
Area law enforcement agencies often call on the North Central Unit to provide tracking dogs to assist in locating lawbreakers or suspected lawbreakers.
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