More prison beds will be needed as a result of recent legislation, further exacerbating current overcrowding issues in state and county facilities, according to a forecast presented to Arkansas lawmakers Wednesday.
Wendy Ware, senior vice president of Research, Analysis, and Forecasting for CGL Companies, told a joint meeting of the City, County and Local Affairs Committee the state’s inmate population is projected to grow by an average rate of 2% annually over the next 10 years. Arkansas’ inmate population would increase from about 20,000 today to around 25,000 in 2035, according to the CGL analysis. CGL is a criminal justice facilities management, construction and consulting firm based in Miami, Florida.
The state will need an additional 1,500 to 2,000 through 2040 once the Protect Arkansas Act is fully implemented, Ware said. Among other things, the 2023 law removes the possibility of parole for the state’s most serious offenders.
Ware discussed CGL’s study during a legislative meeting at the Rogers Convention Center, which was the site of the Arkansas Association of Counties’ annual conference. Sebastian County Sheriff Hobe Runion said county jails have had no choice in holding inmates when there’s no room in state prisons.
Since 2016, county jails have added more that 3,000 beds across the state, partly to accommodate an overflow of state inmates, according to Runion. Yet, they’re still “bursting at the seams” with a backlog of around 1,900. While he’s not sure of the answer, Runion asked lawmakers to help create more bedspace.
“The wheels, they haven’t come off yet of our criminal justice system, but they are wobbling really hard,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and it scares me.”
Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, noted that many of the county jails that have added space on their own have done so by asking voters to approve new taxes.
“So I think as legislators, we just need to keep in mind that when we continue to kick the can down the road and don’t figure out ways to solve problems, that what we’re doing ends up raising taxes on a lot of our citizens,” Ray said.
Many state officials have supported increasing prison capacity, but have disagreed on how to achieve that goal.
The biggest source of controversy has been the proposed construction of a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said the prison is needed to address overcrowding in county jails. Local residents and lawmakers decried the state’s lack of transparency in selecting an 815-acre site near Charleston and have pushed back against the project.
Sen. Bryan King, a Green Forest Republican and outspoken critic of the Franklin County prison, again raised concerns about the project’s costs Wednesday. The preliminary cost estimate of the prison is $825 million, according to the project’s construction management company, California-based Vanir.
King specifically discussed concerns about an increase in cost due to a lack of infrastructure for providing enough water to the site.
“We cannot continue to afford what we’re doing and what we’re spending,” he said.
The Legislature previously set aside $330 million for the proposed penitentiary, plus another $75 million. Arkansas lawmakers rejected a bill that would have appropriated an additional $750 million for the project during the 2025 legislative session.
Corrections Secretary Lindsay Wallace told lawmakers Wednesday more than 1,400 beds have been brought online since Sanders took office in 2023, and officials are exploring more options.
A women’s health unit with 50 beds is scheduled to open next month, Wallace said. The Board of Corrections also approved an expansion of the Mississippi County work release facility, which will net 100 additional beds, she said.
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