If the Lawrence County jail is forced to shut down next month, one option the county would have is to ship their inmates to other counties, and reimburse those counties for the use of the facilities; however, that may be easier said than done. Space is very limited at other county jails, according to a report from the Sun newspaper. Craighead County Sheriff Marty Boyd has closed his county’s jail to misdemeanor inmates, citing a backlog of inmates that are waiting to be transferred to an Arkansas Department of Correction facility. Boyd says the only people they are accepting are those who have been arrested for violent misdemeanors, driving while intoxicated, and felonies. A similar situation has happened in Greene County, which lead to the county building a new jail that opened in mid-August. The new facility is currently housing 244 inmates, and can hold up to 418 inmates. Greene County Sheriff Dan Langston says they could help Lawrence County, if needed. One major consideration to shipping inmates to neighboring counties is the cost. The report states that it costs about $43 a day to house inmates. While the county is paid that amount, the Sun says the state only pays about $28 a day for inmates after they are sentenced for 30 days. Lawrence County Judge Dale Freeman says the county will have to build a new jail or deliver their prisoners to other counties. A special Quorum Court meeting on the issue has been called for September 4th.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.