Members of the Arkansas Senate on Tuesday rejected a $750 million appropriation bill for a new prison for the fifth time.
The funding would go toward a new 3,000-bed state prison set for construction in the Franklin County city of Charleston in western Arkansas. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders first announced the state’s purchase of 815 acres for the new prison in October, leading to widespread criticism from local residents and officials.
Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, whose district would include the new prison, spoke against the bill on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“We need major, substantial investment in facilities in Benton and Washington counties where the population growth is… and we need more flexible things to do. This mega prison – look at Utah, look at Alabama; every one of them is a financial disaster,” he said.
King spoke against the high price tag for the prison, and said counties should work to fund their own county jail expansions to help alleviate overcrowding. Sen. Justin Boyd, R-Fort Smith, disagreed, citing Crawford County’s efforts to expand their jail.
“Fast forward to today, Crawford County built a nice new jail in a new location. It’s a modernly-designed jail which creates efficiencies and advantages, so that’s good. But right now, today, there’s 65 state inmates in there,” he said.
Lawmakers and state prison officials say a new facility is needed to cut down on the number of state inmates housed in county jails, saying as many as 40,000 felony warrants are going unserved because of overcrowding.
“We need a facility to house prisoners so that people that are committing crimes that deserve to be in county jail, which again is different than prison, have a place to be in county jail,” said Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville. “Otherwise we just have criminals roaming the streets. I’ve got four kids, I want to have a safe community. We’ve got law enforcement officers but we have nowhere to put people who are committing crimes.”
King said the state should work to reduce crime instead of building large new prisons.
“Embarrassingly, we have one of the highest incarceration rates because we have high crime rates. If you don’t stop the crime on the front end, we’re going to be in a financial death spiral.”
The bill failed with 21 senators voting in favor of it, nine voting against, and five voting present. While the bill got a few more votes than in previous floor sessions, it didn’t meet the 27-vote threshold needed to pass.
Arkansas lawmakers are set to informally adjourn the 2025 legislative session next week.
