Washington County voters wait in line to cast their ballot shortly after a Springdale Civic Center polling site opened on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
The focus on funding facilities for Arkansas prisoners shifts from the state to the counties this week as voters in Madison and Pope counties consider sales tax and bond proposals in special elections Tuesday.
Madison County voters are considering adopting a 1% sales tax for operation and maintenance of a new county jail that’s scheduled to be complete in June. Meanwhile, Pope County voters are being asked to approve an $89.9 million bond issue to build a new county jail and 911 call center, and a 0.75% sales tax to pay off the bond debt.
During the 2025 legislative session that adjourned last week, lawmakers rejected a $750 million appropriation bill to fund construction of a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County that supporters, including the governor, have said is needed to alleviate crowding in county jails, several of which are holding state inmates due to a lack of prison space.
Because Madison County only has a 24-hour holding facility, County Judge Larry Garrett said they ship prisoners to other counties, some as far away as Lafayette County in southeast Arkansas.
“We’re hauling prisoners outside the county to be housed in other county jails and that has become very difficult,” he said. “Every jail is overcrowded and nowhere to go with them.”
Garrett estimated 50-60 Madison County prisoners are housed around the state, which costs the county $45-$70 a day per person. The lack of a jail is also costing Madison County manpower, especially on long hauls to Lafayette County, which Garrett said takes two deputies off the street for 12 hours.
An effort to build a jail has been ongoing for years, according to The Madison County Record. Ballot measures to support construction of a county jail failed in 2008, 2013 and 2014. In 2022, a construction tax passed, but a 1.25% maintenance and operation tax failed by about 200 votes. A 1% maintenance tax failed by 40 votes last November.
Because he knew they “can only do it once,” Garrett said they tried to build for the future and used $16 million to construct a 148-bed jail, though he doesn’t expect the facility to open at full capacity immediately. Garrett estimated it would cost $1.9 million to return prisoners currently housed around the state to Madison County, which he said they can’t afford right now.
If voters approve the maintenance and operation tax Tuesday, Garrett said it will help run the new jail, which he estimated will cost around $2.5 million to operate annually. That would include the cost of food and medical services and the salaries of employees, which Garrett said would be around 15 people at full staff.
Local officials have hosted town halls and tours of the new jail, the latter of which Garrett said was “very positive,” though he said he’s not sure how that will translate at the ballot box.
“I think everybody wants a jail because we don’t have one and they know that the criminals are getting turned loose,” he said. “They want a jail, they just don’t want to have to pay to run it.”
Garrett said he understands the aversion to more taxes, but noted that everyone who purchases something in the county like gas or fast food will pay the sales tax, not just local residents. Additionally, he said the City of Huntsville sunset a 1-cent sales tax last year, so the jail’s maintenance and operation tax would basically take the place of that.
Pope County
In Pope County, officials have also hosted town halls to inform local voters about the proposed three-quarter-cent sales tax to construct, operate and maintain a new jail and 911 call center. New facilities are needed because the county’s population has doubled since construction of the current jail in 1981, Pope County Judge Ben Cross said.
County officials started the year with 11,000 active misdemeanor warrants, but because of overcrowding, the current 172-bed jail is only being used to hold felons and people who’ve committed violent misdemeanors like domestic violence, Cross said.
If officials receive approval from voters Tuesday, Cross said the county owns 26 acres north of Exit 83 along I-40 where the new facility can be built. Because “you get more bang for your buck,” officials would construct one building that would house a 400-bed jail and 911 center, as well as the county’s sheriff’s office and office of emergency management, he said.
The acreage would provide space to expand in the future, and the tax, which wouldn’t sunset, would provide a revenue source to continue operating the facility, Cross said.
“You can’t put a price on public safety, and that’s one reason this is not a sunset tax because you have to have that money for generations to come to operate a facility like this,” he said. “If you sunsetted it and you built this facility, then you don’t have money to maintain and operate it. Somewhere in the future you’re kicking that can down the road.”
The special elections in Madison and Pope counties are two of the elections taking place around the state Tuesday. The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service has a list of elections on its website.
You can also check your voter registration, and find polling locations and sample ballots here.
To view this story, or for more news updates from Arkansas Advocate, click here.
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