Arkansas lawmakers advance $750 million appropriation bill for prison construction

Yahoo

20-03-2025

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A legislative committee on Thursday approved a $750 million appropriation bill for the cost of constructing a new 3,000-bed prison in western Arkansas, three weeks after rejecting a request for approval to draft the bill.
Funds for the project won't get disbursed until formal requests are approved by the Legislature, but that didn't stop members of the Joint Budget Committee Thursday morning from venting about the Sanders administration's decision to place a new prison in rural Franklin County in an effort to alleviate overcrowding in county jails.
Searcy Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang, committee co-chair and lead sponsor of Senate Bill 354, said he heard his colleagues' previous concerns about not having a total cost estimate for the project. Vanir Construction, the firm hired by the Department of Corrections as the project's construction manager, issued a letter with a preliminary cost estimate of $825 million on March 3, the same day Dismang filed a bill to appropriate $750 million for the project.
Arkansas officials estimate new prison cost at $825M; bill appropriating $750M filed
Lawmakers have had weeks to read the bill and ask questions, according to Dismang, who reminded his colleagues that approving SB 354 would not release any funds and was required to start a capital project.
'There are stopgaps and stopgaps and stopgaps in front of us as we discuss funding along the way and how we're going to do that,' he said. 'This is not that. This is the appropriation for a capital project to build a prison. Period. This is not the end of our responsibility. This is not the end of our discussion. This allows us to have the bigger conversation.'
Several lawmakers who've been vocal critics of the project remained unsatisfied Thursday, arguing that local residents don't want the prison in their community and that costs will be higher than estimated due to a lack of needed infrastructure as well as rising costs of construction materials and the possible effect of steel tariffs.
Lawmakers' questions were fielded by former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri. After being fired by the Arkansas Board of Corrections last year, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders hired him as a senior aide. Sanders later appointed Lindsay Wallace his successor.
The prison could be opened in phases, according to Profiri, who said the intent is to activate at least part of the facility in late 2026 or early 2027. The goal would be to have the project finished by 2029.
Profiri also told lawmakers the ultimate cost of the project will be determined by engineers' findings, and he noted that adjustments can be made to stay within budget. Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said Profiri has worked on at least three prison facilities over the course of nearly 40 years in corrections and was able to keep them under budget, honoring the wishes of lawmakers who have the ultimate approval of how much is spent.
'I struggle to think, what if we don't build this prison, what is the cost to society?' Hester said. 'How do we answer to the people at home when there's no misdemeanor justice? What is the cost to not do this?'
The need for more prison space is expected to increase as the state implements 2023's Protect Arkansas Act, which requires the most serious offenders to serve the majority of their sentences. County jails currently house roughly 10% of state inmates, costing the state nearly $30 million annually, according to a corrections department spokesperson.
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Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said he supports a new prison and is willing to overlook some of his fiscal responsibility because he feels the prison is needed so badly. But the state could have done more on the front end to ensure the property it bought was suitable, including making sure there was sufficient access to utilities and no environmental concerns, he said.
'So to sit here and tell me that you've got this great experience in doing this and you have basically flubbed the purchase, it's just insulting to me,' he said. '…I did an amendment to try to make it so that we'd have the money because this might be a four- or five-year project, but we don't want to listen to that or try to do that to have the money in place. We just want to talk about how we're going to do this and we can't even get the first step right.'
Hickey was referring to an amendment to SB 254 that failed in the JBC Special Language subcommittee about an hour before the Joint Budget Committee met Thursday morning. The proposal wasn't about spending money, but 'moving money and parking it in holding accounts,' he said.
One proposed account would be the $750 million mentioned in the appropriation bill, an account Hickey said is already set aside with roughly $330 million in it. The other account for $250 million would be for prison construction or contingencies.
Prison opponents voice concerns as Arkansas officials proceed with 3,000-bed project
The Legislature set aside $75 million in 2022 and $330 million in 2023 for prison expansion.
The amendment would also have allowed the interest being put into the Catastrophic Reserve Fund, which Hickey said had roughly $1.9 billion in it, to be released so it can also be used.
'What this will also do is make it so that we have enough money to park this billion dollars, and it also will free up about another hundred million dollars in funds to help with our cash flow,' Hickey said in the subcommittee.
As a member of the committee, Hickey made a do-pass motion, but it failed for lack of a second.
During the Joint Budget Committee meeting, Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, said the state 'had a lot of money burning a hole in our pocket.' The state's general revenue surplus was $698.4 million in fiscal year 2024, the fourth-largest surplus on record. The general revenue surplus exceeded $1 billion in the two previous years.
Everyone agreed to build a prison, but Payton said he's not sure 'we made a wise business decision' about where to put it.
'But it did destroy a lot of confidence in the people making the decision, and when we're talking about what could be a billion dollar project, we need some confidence in how the decisions are going to be made,' he said.
When the governor announced in late October the purchase of 815 acres near Charleston for $2.95 million, several Arkansas lawmakers, as well as local officials and residents, decried the decision for its lack of transparency and have continued to push back against the project.
Even if the state increases prison capacity, Payton said, staffing will be an issue, as it has been for a number of years.
'That's what concerns me most, and that's why I think we need to slow down instead of running off half-cocked and pursuing what could be a major problem in the end,' he said.
Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a Branch Republican whose family land is near the prison site, requested the committee's vote be divided by chambers. The bill advanced after garnering a 17-10 vote on the Senate side and a 16-10 vote on the House side.
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