Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay is excited about where the county is heading financially, especially when it comes to new jail beds. He says while these 75 new beds won't solve the overcrowding problem every little bit counts.
Sheriff Holladay just might get half his wish for more jail beds. There are 150 available and if the Quorum Court approves it the jail will open up 75 of those beds by the spring.
"Seventy-five beds gets us near the finish line on what's available in our facility," says Sheriff Holladay.
But some on the court fear those beds will end up going to state prisoners. "When we add jail beds the state decides that's more beds for them instead of folks who are waiting for their day in court in Pulaski County," says Phil Stowers, on the Pulaski County Quorum Court.
The longer state prisoners take up county beds, the more expensive it gets for local agencies that have to spend money housing prisoners in other counties.
"We're on track to spend over $300,000 in buying space in Faulkner County this year in order to lock up folks who are repeat offenders," explains North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley.
Complaints last month led the state to pick up about a hundred of its prisoners from Pulaski County. With budget cuts at the department of correction the problem is expected to remain, however. Working with the Governor and state officials is yielding some ideas like restructuring harsh sentencing guidelines to ease overcrowding.
"We're also seeing people who are going to the pen for extended periods of time for what appear to be less violent crimes," says Sheriff Holladay.
Holladay says there probably won't even be enough space to lock up all criminals but working together they can get to a more comfortable situation. The jail capacity is 980; right now it's holding 1036. Of those, 213 are state prisoners and 79 are federal prisoners.
