Inmates to move into new addition at Pulaski County Jail

PULASKI COUNTY, AR - 80 inmates are expected to move into a new addition at the Pulaski County Jail starting on November 19.

Sheriff Doc Holladay says it’ll make all of us a little safer, and here’s why: without the additional beds, a non-violent felon might be released because there’s no empty bed for him.

“We all know when that happens, these individuals are likely to go back and reoffend,” Holladay said.

In other words:

“If we can keep more of those non-violent felons for longer periods of time in this facility, our hope is that it will reduce the crime rate in our cities and in the county,” Holladay said.

So what’s the jail addition look like?

Well, you’ve got six 40-bed pods. Two of them should be full by the week of November 19th.

Then there’s the lavatory area, meeting rooms for inmates and their lawyers, a classroom - and of course - a visitation area. It’s all fairly standard stuff, but in this case, it’s brand new.

So now the question is – who’s paying for it?

At the moment, we only know the arrangement for the first 80 inmates.

The county will pick up about 1/3 of the cost – or roughly $320,000.

Five cities – Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville, Maumelle, and Sherwood – will pick up the other 2/3 of it – about $640,000.

“It wasn’t fair for the county government to absorb all of the cost of this expansion because people that it’s helping are gonna be the larger cities within the county,” Holladay said.

So now the larger cities have a larger jail.

It’s affect on the crime rate remains to be seen.