Arkansas jails are overflowing; it’s time to add new prison beds

By: Chris Villines
AAC Executive Director

Like many Arkansans, I enjoy a good courtroom drama. Whether it’s fiction like “Matlock” or real-life legal thrillers, there’s something satisfying about seeing justice served — when the guilty party is convicted, sentenced, and escorted out of court to serve time in a proper prison.

But in Arkansas, that dramatic moment doesn’t reflect reality.

Here, when someone is convicted and sentenced, they’re not immediately whisked away to a state prison. Instead, they’re returned to the same county jail where they’ve been held since their arrest. There, they may sit days, weeks, or even months, waiting for a spot to open in the Arkansas Division of Corrections (ADC). In a growing number of cases, they end up serving their entire sentence in the county jail.

This backlog is creating serious consequences for public safety and criminal justice across Arkansas.

County jails were never designed, or funded, to house long-term, high-risk inmates. These facilities were built to hold people briefly — those awaiting trial or serving time for misdemeanors like petty theft or minor drug offenses. When these beds are filled with convicted felons awaiting transfer to state prison, there’s no room for local offenders. That means less accountability for misdemeanants, who are increasingly released due to overcrowding.

We are, quite literally, running out of room to deliver justice.

The issue isn’t just about space; it’s about wasted potential. While state prisons offer rehabilitative programs such as GED education, anger management, and job training, county jails do not. These programs are impractical to run at the local level and often cost-prohibitive for short-stay populations. As a result, inmates sentenced to state time, but stuck in county jails, have no access to meaningful reform. They’re simply warehoused, with little hope of rehabilitation. Furthermore, these seasoned criminals gain day to day interaction with baby perpetrators, a culture that doesn’t lend itself to turning away from a life of crime.

The ripple effects are alarming. Without the threat of jail time, deterrence is weakened. According to the Arkansas Crime Information Center, as of June, there were 33,108 failure-to-appear warrants, 143,466 active misdemeanor warrants, and 26,239 felony warrants outstanding statewide. Many of these individuals have no fear of incarceration because there’s simply nowhere to put them.

Currently, between 1,800 and 2,000 state-sentenced inmates are stuck in county jails each day. That’s 1,800 to 2,000 beds that can’t be used for local offenders. The resulting “catch-and-release” dynamic is quietly reshaping our justice system … and not for the better.

JFA Associates, a nationally respected criminal justice consulting firm retained by the state, recently projected that Arkansas’ state inmate population will grow to nearly 24,000 by 2032. Without new state prison beds, we would balloon to over 6,000 inmates remaining in county custody. Meanwhile, the Emergency Powers Act, which once served as a release valve to ease overcrowding, hasn’t been invoked

in years.

This crisis didn’t happen overnight. Between 1973 and 2005, Arkansas built over a dozen standalone long-term correctional facilities to keep pace with population growth. In the two decades since? Not a single one.

That’s why the conversation around building a new state prison (or potentially more than one) is so important right now.

Much is being said about a recently selected site for a new prison. The sheriffs of our state, tasked with the county jails, have repeatedly not engaged in that discussion, and have in fact been excluded from the site selection process. This is a state process. Our counties are far more concerned about a potential decline in public safety as a result of any further delay in adding beds.

There’s also ongoing debate over whether Arkansas should build one, two, or even three new facilities totaling around 3,000 beds. From a county perspective, one larger facility makes the most fiscal sense. One kitchen instead of three. One perimeter to secure. Fewer staff to manage. That economy of scale is how we’ve learned to stretch taxpayer dollars in local jails. But again, this is a state, not county, decision to make.

What is our responsibility — and our plea — is to sound the alarm: Arkansas is heading toward a full-blown local criminal justice crisis. And the only solution is to build new prison beds so county jails can return to their original purpose: short-term stays and misdemeanor justice.

We commend Gov. Sanders and the legislative majority who support this effort. The time to act is now. Let’s do what’s right to protect public safety and restore accountability across Arkansas.