This is a little long winded but an interesting read.
Under my 7 terms as Sheriff the Office earned a good deal of recognition as being one of toughest Sheriff Offices in the United States; but the one thing we are known the best for is the way we operated the jail. The Benton County Jail was the most hated but most respected jails in the nation. Its reputation was not only known throughout the state of Arkansas, but throughout other parts of the country as well. The Benton County Jail was one of the major reasons Benton County enjoys a low crime rate. Our inmates, when released, have often said that they will never commit a crime again in this county. Here is some background on how the Benton County Jail achieved notoriety among the criminal element.
It all started with a dangerous fight and a few frivolous lawsuits filed by some inmates. The end result was staggering. No inmate, while serving time under my administration, was allowed the following: televisions, radios, newspapers, razors, hair cuts, regular tooth brushes, candy bars, cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, gum, deodorant, combs, nail clippers, coffee, tea, milk, fruit juice, hot meals, regular size mattresses, pillows, basketballs, weight lifting equipment, or exercise machines. The outside exercise yard consisted of four solid 28 foot tall walls, capped with a security chain link. The jail’s floors were all concrete and painted with a red line along the sides of the floor next to each wall. The inmates were not allowed to cross the red line which resulted in the walls never becoming soiled from contact by the prisoners. We were the first jail in the country to bring back the notorious black and white inmate uniforms. It wasn’t long before it was common to witness grown men and hardcore criminals cry when they learned they were going to the Benton County Jail.
There were, however, some important things that Benton County inmates were allowed to have: certain books, a bible, water or powdered milk served with a room temperature meal, health care, and lots of intervention with volunteer jail chaplains or lay persons. Church services were held often, and bible study classes were held daily. In addition, we built a baptismal font inside our jail, and during my tenure as Sheriff, we baptized over 500 inmates.
Ask any prisoner and they will tell you that our jail is better known for its firm but fair operations than any other jail or prison in the state. Early on in my tenure as Sheriff, I realized that inmates were getting excessive privileges while serving time, or waiting for their court hearings. These privileges included things that many law-abiding citizens could not afford. The resolution was to evolve the jail into one that was hated by those who were serving time but very well respected by those who left.
As I mentioned earlier, abusive fights and lawsuits were the two things that led to the elimination of what we call “frills” from our jail. During my first week as Sheriff, I walked into what we call the booking room of the jail. Sitting there was an inmate who looked like he walked into a meat cleaver. I asked the Sergeant on duty what happened, and he said the inmate fell off the bunk. We all knew that his injuries were not the result of falling off the bunk but from getting beat down by fellow inmates. It soon became clear to me that our inmates were getting beat down and fights were breaking out on a daily basis, especially on Saturday mornings. I asked my staff to question a couple of the inmates and find out why these fights were occurring. We found three major causes, and they were all due to what we call “privileges”. The number one reason we had fights was the television. It seems like the channel selection was the real culprit. The most common channel selection that inmates fought over was cartoons. That is why, on Saturday mornings, there were more fights. The second reason for fighting was the stealing other inmate’s cigarettes, and the third reason was stealing other inmate’s candy bars.
As Sheriff, it was my sworn duty to provide a safe and secure environment for the incarcerated, so a plan of action was put in place. Like two little kids fighting over a toy, the best way to stop the fight is to take away the toy. That way, with nothing to fight over, it does not take long before they are getting along. So we took away all the televisions, radios, newspapers, cigarettes, etc. Almost immediately, the inmate’s fights stopped. But we did not stop there, and here is why. I personally was sued, over 200 hundred times, due to privileges not being given to the inmates. One suit that comes to mind involved our jail serving hot coffee in a metal cup that had no handle on it. The handles were absent from our metal cups because the inmates were breaking them off in attempts to use them as weapons. Another suit involved serving food that had chilled to room temperature. A second plan of action was created.
I asked our attorney if there was any statute that required the food we served to be hot and what kinds of liquids were required for the inmates to drink. I found out that the only requirement that has to be met is an adequate nutrition level. So the need for coffee cups came to an end, along with serving trays that were required to keep food warm. The inmates now had two choices of drinks, water or powdered milk, neither of which required a cup with a handle. No need for warming trays because the food was now served at room temperature. No hot meals in our jail, ever again. It did not stop there either.
The inmates soon lost the privilege of having a pillow. Their mattresses were replaced with a three-quarter inch sheet of foam wrapped in a fire resistant/antibacterial fabric that was nearly impossible to destroy. Each inmate was required to get out of bed at 5 AM, promptly police their quarters, and dress to be ready to fall out for inspection. Only then, were the prisoners allowed to enter what is referred to as the “day room”, where they stayed until lights out at 8 PM. It was not long before our jail earned the reputation of “three colds and a cot.”
There is one more reason for taking away all these privileges that hasn’t been mentioned yet and it’s your tax dollar. I believe all elected officials have a duty to be as frugal with your money as possible. This is the real reason that our jail was coined with the name “no frills jail”. Let me give you an example. When you get paid, as you know, some of the dollars you receive are yours to keep and spend, while some of it is given to the government to keep and spend. So approximately two thirds of your dollar is what we call the privilege end, and one third is what we call the tax end. You decide to take the privilege end of your dollar and go out to buy a television. One day while you are at work earning a dollar, a burglar breaks into your home. He steals your television that you bought with the privilege side of your dollar and takes that TV down to the nearest pawn shop. He sells it for one-tenth of what you paid for it, and then takes the proceeds he made to spend the way he wishes. Heck, he does not even have to pay any tax on the monies he got for your television. But he is not that lucky. You come home find out your television was stolen, then call the local law enforcement and in time they catch the burglar. Now for the kicker, once he is incarcerated, the first thing he demands from the government is to furnish him with a television. A television that will be bought with your tax earned dollar. I call that “double dipping”. He steals your TV you purchased from the privilege end of your earned dollar, and from the tax end of your earn dollar, he wants you to by him another TV to watch while he waits for the justice system to work.
Privileges are something you earn and pay for. Rights are something guaranteed under the Constitution. The inmates in the Benton County Jail did not enjoy a single privilege on your tax dollar under my administration. The tax you pay into the system should be used for your security and guaranteed rights from our Constitution no matter if you are at home enjoying the privileges you acquired or if you are in jail or prison as an inmate.
Finally, our county inmates did not only serve their time in the jail, they also worked for our communities. My administration put inmates on government projects to help reduce the expenditure of local tax dollars. Benton County inmates built over 32 miles of sidewalks, built and restored parks, and many school playgrounds were repaired and restored to state and federal standards. County inmates cleaned and restored commentaries, walking trails, shorelines around public lakes, and picked up many tons of trash along our highways and illegal dump sights. Along with the inmate trash crew, we found an effective solution for the times inmates needed to relieve themselves through out the day. To keep from disrupting the whole inmate crew and take them somewhere every time nature called, we came up with a port-a-potty on wheels. This mobile port-a-potty soon became the talk of the community. For protection from on coming road traffic, it was outfitted with a blue police light-bar. You can only imagine what a person must think when driving down a highway and, far ahead, you see a set of flashing blue lights only to discover that is not on top of a police vehicle but on the back of a toilet. There is much more that what we accomplish with our inmate programs, but I’ll save that for another day.
