Arkansas Budget Committee Debates $4.2M Jail Funding for State Inmates

Arkansas Budget Director Robert Brech explains to the Joint Budget Committee on Thursday, April 11, 2024, why he believes lawmakers should accept a $4.2 million appropriation of state monies to reimburse county prisons for keeping state convicts for the remainder of fiscal year 2024. (Image courtesy of Arkansas Legislature)

Arkansas lawmakers argued Thursday whether to provide the state Department of Corrections additional funds for the current fiscal year to be paid to county jails as compensation for hosting state convicts.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote a letter to the Joint Budget Committee requesting $4.2 million in general revenue monies for jail payments. State budget director Robert Brech said he believes the government of Corrections underestimated how much more money it would require, since fewer state offenders have been kept in county jails than the government expected for the fiscal year 2024, which ends June 30.

The committee approved the requested appropriation with a divided voice vote.

Appropriations are state agencies’ spending authority before they are given money to spend, and the committee introduced a measure Thursday afternoon to allow the supplementary cash.

Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, voted against the appropriation, saying he opposed the committee granting state agencies money that would roll over from one fiscal year to the next.

“You start allowing these items over and over again, where it needs to be increased in the [state budget], and at that point, you have a hard time doing tax planning,” said Hickey, chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.

Brech and Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne both stated that there are around 1,800 state inmates currently housed in county jails. Payne said that this figure has decreased from an average of over 2,000 since October 2023. Over the last six months, the Board of Corrections has approved temporary extra beds in various state prisons to relieve pressure on county jails.

Rep. Jim Wooten, R-Beebe, said he did not believe the figures were consistent with the state’s plans for a new 3,000-bed jail. Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, asked Brech how much money he thought the Department of Corrections required for jail reimbursements. Brech stated that he estimated $3 million.

Chesterfield said she backed the $4.2 million appropriation in case $3 million was insufficient. “If we underfund this, we’re going to have to come back in here and get some more money,” she told me. “It’s troubling to me that we’re sitting here knowing that they can’t spend money that is not asked for.”

Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, stated that by clearing the appropriation, county jails will most likely not have to wait for their promised financial recompense until the Legislature’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review subcommittee meets to discuss the problem.

“This is kind of just a safeguard in place that can roll forward to help prevent any averaging that may happen on the high side in a year, and we all want it to be lower, which is hopefully the way that it will end up,” Dismang went on to say.