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Open letter to Quorum Court; reference Juvenile Detention Facility (Note: each member of the Quorum Court has received a copy of the following letter.)

Date; October 17, 2007
To; Benton County Judge and Quorum Court Members
Ref; Jail Expansion

WE ARE SPENDING OUR MONIES IN THE WRONG PLACE

I am perplexed on why we are expanding the number of jail beds in the Benton County Jail when we are not full, at least not full with inmates arrested in Benton County.

Last year in a Long Range Planning Meeting, the Sheriff asked to expand the county jail by 250 beds. This would entail adding an additional pod because the current jail was at capacity. The Sheriff went on to say he was hoping to expand his housing of federal prisoners by not only holding federal prisoners from the Western District of Arkansas but he wanted to secure the Eastern District federal prisoners as well.

Why? If our jail is full and we are turning away prisoners arrested in Benton County why does the Sheriff not phase out the holding of other county and federal prisoners? The program of holding state prisoners from other Arkansas county jails and federal prisoners started under my watch. We had jail space and other counties did not. We explained to the members of the county court, at that time, this practice could bring in a net revenue of over one million dollars annually. We also made it clear that when the time came and Benton County needed those leased beds for subjects who were arrested in our county the program of holding out of county and federal prisoners would be phased out. I also suggested that any net revenues generated from housing prisoners not from Benton County should be put to the side for future maintenance and or expansion and the monies should never be used as anticipated revenues in the general budget.

I see where the Sheriff wants to downsize his expansion plan of 250 beds to 136 beds and I still ask why?

Why are we even thinking about expansion while we are holding other agencies prisoners?

When the Quorum Court went out to the citizens of Benton County and asked for a half cents sales tax for a new jail there was never a mention of building a jail that in the future would hold outside agencies prisoners while turning away and releasing prisoners back into the streets that have been arrested in Benton County. Something is wrong with that picture!

Now let’s get to the Sheriff’s recent pod proposal. I see he has dropped the request for the 250 bed pod at a cost from 12 to 14 million dollars to a 136 bed pod built by inmates at a cost of 2 or 3 million dollars.

My first point of interest would be 2 or 3 million dollars, which is it? Then the Sheriff said it would only require nine additional personnel to run the new pod. I don’t think so. Unless the operations of that jail have changed, it will require at least 18 additional personnel just to operate the pod. That does not include the additional personnel that it will take to handle the additional duties and issues put on the jail.

Duties and issues like:
• transporting prisoners to the courts, to the state prisons, to outside medical care etc.
• booking and releasing the additional inmates
• the handling and storage of inmates personal property
• the additional requirement of supervising visitation for inmates
• the supervision of additional inmate trustees who will do the increase of laundry, cleaning and food preparation of the new pod.
• jail clerks will have to deal with the increase of family members requesting visitation.
• If we increase the jail by 30% will that require another nurse and another medical doctor to meet the inmate’s medical needs?
• Will the pharmaceutical cost go up by 30%? If so how much of an increase is that?
• How much will it increase the utility cost of gas, electric and water?
• Will the current emergency generator cover the new pod or will there be a need to put in a second emergency generator?
• Will we need an additional maintenance person?
• With the increase of 136 prisoners will this require an additional judge to come on site to hold the additional bond hearings?
• Is the parking for the staff adequate for the additional personnel?
• Is the public parking adequate for the additional public that will be visiting the jail? If not what will the cost for additional parking be?
• With an increase of 30% of inmates will there need to be an increase in the public defenders office to provide legal service for the additional inmate population?
• Has Jail Standards reviewed the new pod plan and given it their blessing as required?

The Sheriff has stated he is currently understaffed in the present jail, what will this do to his under-staffing issue if he adds an additional pod and under-staffs it?

It is important to note that the members of the Quorum Court are the good stewards of our tax monies. Again it is important to remember the current jail was not sold to the public and built under the premise that someday Benton County would become a Federal Housing Prison and a State Housing Prison and at the same time turn away men and women who have been arrested in Benton County only to be released back into our streets.

Once the Sheriff unloads all the State and Federal prisoners and runs the jail efficiently, if then it shows signs of overcrowding, we should support his expansion.

WHERE THE MONIES NEED TO BE SPENT

Jail expansion is not what the county should be looking at now; this is where the monies need to go. A much needed new, modern, state of the art juvenile detention facility. The county had better pay attention to our juvenile Judge, Judge Jay Finch when he tells you the juvenile justice system is in a hole. If you would take the time to listen to him you will see he has a very long list of reasons why we need a new Juvenile Detention Facility. I would like to add that if you ever expect to reduce the adult population of inmates in Benton County then the starting place is with our juvenile offenders. All adult prisoners were juveniles at a time in their life. If there had been proper intervention when they were juveniles I wonder where the majority of our adult prisoners would be today.

Thank you for your time.

Sheriff Andy Lee, retired
Benton County

Put the tax dollars into a new Juvenile Detention Facility

The current Sheriff has requested several million additional dollars in his budget next year to build a jail annex. Why?

The first thing to do is to stop holding inmates that do not belong to Benton County. These Federal and State prisoners are in Benton County because other counties lack jail space. They are inmates arrested and convicted in other counties in Arkansas. They are using much needed bed space in our jail. Instead of terminating that assistance program, the current Sheriff wants to build an annex to house inmates arrested in Benton County. He is turning away suspected criminals because there is no bed space…Go figure!

The second thing to do is to put the “tough” back in the reputation of the jail. One of Benton County’s best tools in fighting crime is the jail and its reputation. If you run a tough, firm, and fair jail, criminals will not commit crimes in this county. Many times inmates actually cried when they realized they were arrested in Benton County. Warranted criminals would flee to the coastal states hoping to avoid extradition back into Benton County Arkansas. They did not want to serve time in Benton County Jail. A tough jail will never be a full jail. Inmates who can make bond will and those who cannot will spread the word to stay out of Benton County.

We do not need more jail space. We need to stop holding prisoners arrested outside of Benton County. I compare the welcoming of more and more prisoners from other counties with the failure to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. My question would be to the current Sheriff and members of the Quorum Court, Where do we draw the line?

Efficiency of operation and executing the original policies used when the jail first opened will make the need for expansion obsolete. We can better serve our community by putting our tax dollars where there is a real need, that is, a new Juvenile Detention Facility.

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.