It wasn’t unexpected news. Citizens at a public meeting last night in Walnut Ridge were told the Lawrence County jail has about six more months it can remain open. What is facing those citizens will be a looming sales tax issue aimed at building a new county jail. County Judge Dale Freeman says the only other alternative is shipping the current inmates to other counties, which he says would “bankrupt” the county. The Sun Newspaper reports that Arkansas Jail Standards Coordinator Danny Hickman appeared at the meeting last night and told the 75 in attendance the current jail is a “ticking time bomb”. Freeman says the jail is expected to close because it has failed inspections over the last ten years. Some of the many violations include small cell space, consistent overcrowding, and a lack of firefighting equipment. Officials estimate that a new county jail will cost about $10 million to build. Some in the meeting last night also asked about whether the closed Black Rock School and its multi-purpose facility could be transformed into a new jail. Freeman says that is a possibility that architects will look at. If a new jail is to be built from scratch, Freeman reportedly estimated that a tax of about two cents on every dollar could be sought.
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.