Panel approves $4.2M appropriation for Arkansas corrections department to reimburse jails for holding state inmates

Arkansas lawmakers debated Thursday whether to give the state Department of Corrections extra money during the current fiscal year to be distributed to county jails as reimbursement for housing state prisoners.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sent a letter to the Joint Budget Committee asking for approval of $4.2 million in general revenue funds for the jail reimbursements. State budget director Robert Brech said he believed the Department of Corrections miscalculated how much more money it needs, since fewer state inmates have been kept in county jails than the department predicted for the 2024 fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The committee approved the proposed appropriation with a split voice vote.

Appropriations are state agencies’ spending authority before they are allocated any money to spend, and the committee filed a bill Thursday afternoon to authorize the supplemental funding.

Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, voted against the appropriation and said he disapproved of the committee giving state agencies money that would carry over from one fiscal year to another.

“You start allowing these items over and 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, the chairman of the Senate Revenue and Tax Committee.

There are currently about 1,800 state inmates in county jails, Brech and Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne both said. Payne added that this number has dropped from an average of more than 2,000 since October 2023. The Board of Corrections has approved temporary additional beds in several state prisons in the past six months to alleviate the pressure on county jails.

Rep. Jim Wooten, R-Beebe, said he did not think those numbers aligned with the state’s plans for a new 3,000-bed prison.

Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, asked Brech how much money he believed the Department of Corrections actually needed for the jail reimbursements. Brech said he estimated about $3 million.

Chesterfield said she supported the $4.2 million appropriation in case $3 million is not enough.

“If we underfund this, we’re going to have to come back in here and get some more money,” she said. “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, said passing the appropriation meant county jails would likely not have to wait for their promised financial compensation until the Legislature’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review subcommittee can meet to take up the issue.

“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 said.