Craighead County Sheriff Marty Boyd spoke to the Northeast Arkansas Tea Party (NEATP) about the proposed jail tax on the November Ballot.
The issue on the ballot is to approve a temporary one-half cent sales tax to finance a $105 million bond issue to build a new Craighead County Detention Center. Boyd addressed concerns and answered several questions about the jail tax at the public NEATP meeting on Monday, August 5th.
He opened with background on how the jail is currently having to operate as is.
“I’ll start with the bad news, I have proposed a sales tax issue for the ballot in November,” Boyd said. “We are overcrowded in the current facility and we keep having to put a bandaid on the issues but it’s not getting better unfortunately.”
Boyd explained his staff is having to play “who needs jail more,” which boils down to a public safety issue. He explained many misdemeanors have to be let go due to overcrowding. By law, it is mandated to hold felons. Boyd added almost 96% of current inmates are felons.
The facility was opened in 1990 to house 160 inmates. Currently, the jail has 392 beds and averages 420 inmates daily.
“I know that doesn't make sense but, what that means is I have large amounts of people sleeping on floors in what we call boats which is a plastic bunk we put in hallways,” Boyd said.
With the current facility and overcrowding many criminals aren't learning consequences according to Boyd.
“Consequences are not being reached for criminals, all we are teaching them is to keep breaking the law and escalating the crime until they commit a felony or until we hold them,” Boyd said.
Judge Tommy Fowler, a misdemeanor judge, was also in attendance at the meeting. He spoke to attendees about some issues he sees in the courtroom.
Fowler addressed a question from an attendee regarding the potential consequences if the tax did not pass.
“What does that look like? Well, I’m in the same boat that I’m in right now. I continue to see the same people day after day after day who commit the same crimes because they know nothing is going to happen to them,” Fowler said.
Boyd agreed and said his staff would have to continue operating as is.
According to Fowler, most people causing issues in Craighead County don't reside there. Fowler invites individuals to his courtroom to see the situations they are faced with.
“I have officers telling me 'I could have served that warrant but I didn't this weekend because I know if I took them to jail they were going to be out of the jail faster than I could push my paperwork and get back into the car',” Fowler said.
Fowler also discussed the option of increasing property taxes instead of enacting a new tax which was brought up by an attendee.
“So when you talk about ‘Well let's just raise property taxes’ well how many people are avoiding paying for the community services we need because they stay in an apartment,” Fowler said.
An attendee Bob Hester asked if there were any alternatives or methods to be used to help with the overcrowding issue.
Fowler mentioned that Craighead County makes use of specialized courts, including an adult drug court, a juvenile drug court, a mental health court, a veterans court, and a DWI court.
“The model is to look for high-risk high-need individuals but, you have to have the services to provide to those who need it, and not everyone qualifies,” Fowler said.
Hester also asked if there was a way to cut bed costs. Boyd explained in the meeting that current estimates per bed are $140,000 to $160,000 per bed. He said that he even had an estimate of up to $170,000.
“They have to be to a standard,” Boyd said, so there isn't a way to cut that cost.
Craighead County Bail Bondsman Coty Powers and Larry Hagar from T-Gard Bail Bonds also spoke in the meeting. Act 659 was brought up in the meeting as an issue that could be contributing to the problem.
Act 659 of 2023 changes the length of prison sentences for violent offenders and requires inmates to participate in drug rehabilitation and education programs to qualify for parole according to Senate.Arkansas.Gov.
“We were asked to talk about alternatives to incarceration,” Powers said.
According to, the act affects county jails, sheriffs, bail bondsmen, and people who get arrested and want to bail out of jail. As of January 1 of this year, 10% of the bond must be paid in full before the defendant may be released. Before this defendants could make arrangements to pay their bail bondsman in installments.
Hagar brought up this issue and said if people can’t finance a bail bond then the jails will fill up quickly which he said has happened across the state.
Hagar referenced an alleged newspaper clipping from two weeks ago that had 23 defendants' bonds "anywhere between $15,000 to $150,000."
“I’ll do $150,000 every day on simultaneous firearms and drugs and I’m not ashamed I'll tell you that," Fowler said. "That’s someone who is a danger to the public. I am not ashamed of that.”
Powers said there were many things to consider that’s not just bail bonds.
“For example what we consider a crime, the State Legislature meets every year to possibly tweak things,” Powers said, “Maybe we should reconsider those things.”
Powers used the example that a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd DWI are all considered misdemeanors but a pipe could be a felony. He said there were several things that the legislature needed to look at.
Attendee James Hienz commended Boyd for being transparent with citizens.
“I appreciate that in this case, we are seeing the government being more upfront and honest,” Heinz said. “A lot of these tax increases are underhanded.”
The issue will be left to the voters in November.
