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

Arkansas lawmakers debated April 10 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.

By: Tess Vrbin
Arkansas Advocate

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.

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