This is a no-brainer. Lonoke County desperately needs a new jail, and county residents have an opportunity to pay for it quickly and almost painlessly.
The quorum court has placed a 12-month penny sales tax on the Tuesday primary ballot to pay for construction of a new, 140-bed jail. That’s nearly twice the capacity of the current jail, which is dank, disintegrating, inefficient and overcrowded. It’s dangerous not only for the inmates—many of whom have not yet been convicted—but also for the jailers. Doors don’t open from a central control panel. The area is hard to monitor. There is no sally port to load prisoners safely in and out of the jail, and the plumbing and electrical systems are a patchwork of potential problems.
There’s always room to keep accused rapists and murderers in jail, but sometimes there’s no room at the inn for accused and convicted burglars and drug dealers.
County Judge Charlie Troutman and quorum courts dating back to the new millennium have searched for ways to expand and update the existing jail or build a new one. They’ve convened meetings on top of meetings, visited jails in other counties, looked a modular construction, worked with architects and wrestled with funding—to no avail so far.
Now the county has a plan for a new jail that should be big enough for the next 20 years, and could even generate income from other counties and agencies needing any leftover bed space.
The Lonoke County Republican Party, which hasn’t endorsed a tax increase since the beginning of recorded time, voted almost unanimously to support this temporary tax.
The tax is estimated to raise the $5.5 million that the new jail is expected to cost. Skilled and unskilled state Correction Department inmates are expected to do the actual construction under supervision of a paid construction manager.
Over one year that the tax would be collected, it would cost residents of the county, including those in the cities, an estimated $65 for households earning up to $12,500 and an estimated $286 for a family earning $94,000 a year, according to the Public Policy Center of the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture.
No one disputes the need for a modern jail that’s safer and bigger than the current one. The only question is how to raise the money, and right now, the penny sales tax is the only option.
Vote yes Tuesday—or sooner—for the dedicated penny sales tax for jail construction.
