It has been just over five years since we opened the new Logan County Sheriff's Office and Detention Center and I am giving you an update on the Detention Center side of the building.

 

The Detention Center has the capacity to hold 100 inmates.  The breakdown of the beds is 67 male inmates, 27 female inmates, and 6 beds in individual cells in the Booking area.  The 6 Booking area cells are temporary cells to hold people who are arrested and are bonding out soon or to hold people until they are ready to be dressed out and taken to the pod section.  The pod section has 8 cellblocks with 6 cellblocks holding the 67 male inmates and the other two cell blocks holding the 27 female inmates.

 

These past couple of weeks, we have reached capacity several times with the male inmates.  The main reason we are reaching capacity is that we have 21 inmates sentenced to state prison and 2 inmates sentenced to the Arkansas State Hospital and they are waiting in our facility until beds open up.  This is happening all across Arkansas as county jails fill up with inmates who have either plead guilty in a felony case, been found guilty of a felony at a trial, or have been sentenced to the Arkansas State Hospital for mental issues and there are not enough beds to place them so they linger in county jails.  We receive a reimbursement for holding these sentenced inmates but we would rather have the Arkansas Department of Corrections come and get them.

 

We also hold inmates that are charged with federal crimes and we receive a higher reimbursement rate for them than we receive from the state.  This is by contract.  But, when we start reaching our capacity on the male beds, we reduce the number of federal male inmates and if you check our Inmate Log on our website at loganso.com, you will see that we are holding very few male federal inmates (we have plenty of room on the female side).

 

The Arkansas Sheriffs' Association, the Governor and the Attorney General, and our state legislature are working on these issues and a new 3,000 bed state prison is in the works but will take a while to be built.

 

We strive very hard to keep our Detention Center in great shape.  Every year, the Arkansas Jail Standards Review Committee tours and inspects the jail and checks our compliance with state Jail Standards and we pass with flying colors.  The U.S. Marshals Service also sends Deputy U.S. Marshals to inspect our jail since we hold some federal inmates and they are always very satisfied with the jail.  We have a great Detention staff and we are proud of the work they do every day, 24/7, holidays, and nights and weekends in working to make the Logan County Detention Center a safe, secure, and clean place.

 

Sheriff Jason W. Massey