By SPA Staff
FOR several months there have been quiet rumblings in the community about the unfortunate death of an inmate here in Pulaski County. The arrest and death allegedly happened between June 20-22, 2022. Still, no public information has been made available other than the booking report and an obituary of the person said to be the victim. All we can say for sure is that those dates match what is being said around town.
WE acknowledge that it is natural, and sometimes inevitable in the best of circumstances, to have inmates die of natural causes while they are incarcerated, especially in a jail that is rated for around 200 prisoners that generally has double that number on any given day. What isn’t a common occurrence is an inmate being brought into the jail and dying from alleged injuries or incident at the hospital two days later. We also heard the charges were mysteriously dismissed while the inmate was in the hospital, so any open records requests for inmates who died in custody would likely turn up nothing. Which seems like a calculated move, IF that is what went down.
WE will not release the name of the alleged victim or the family, we want to give them the respect and space to grieve their loss in private without any publicity unless they choose to make statements, and they have not as far as we know. The concern here is that the public was not made aware of this type of death or that there may be an [alleged] homicide investigation involving our jail. It has been seven months, and the jailer has made no statements or given public condolences to the family and the local newspaper hasn’t had a write-up to inform the public. If it happened. We asked at least one of the magistrates several months ago if he had knowledge of the incident and he said no. It may be that he was told to not talk about an investigation, or he wasn’t made aware, we have no way of knowing. The best way to head off misinformation and rumors is transparency in office, which may be lacking here, but we hope to hear the truth of the matter soon.
Another thing to note about what is being said about the jail conditions is a possible large turnover in the staff at the jail. If true, that is usually a good indication that something is awry with the management or leadership. However, with the current condition of the workforce -all across America- it may be a sign of the times instead of poor leadership. We will give that one the benefit of the doubt.
WHEN we searched for the latest news to come out of the Pulaski County Jail we found several articles titled “Pulaski County inmate found dead.” However, this was Pulaski County Arkansas giving the media and public an update on an inmate found dead more than a week ago. Hats off to Pulaski County, Arkansas, officials because that is what is supposed to happen when an inmate dies. The public has the right to know. The only news stories we could find about our detention center were the recent feel-good announcements that we all want to hear, but in the spirit of transparency, we need to hear it all. The good. The bad. And the questionable.
IF you watch the fiscal court videos from the previous four years, it is clear that the jailer has been too busy most months to give the court a direct update. We heard his appointed delegate make the excuse, "the jailer wanted to be here, but he had other obligations this morning." That excuse will work a couple of times, but after that it seems the jailer has better things to do than give an update to the fiscal court, the media, or the public. To be fair, he has taken some pretty good initiatives for inmate education, helping give gifts to the children of inmates at Christmas, and probably other things we don't know about, but there clearly isn't enough information out there to allow the general public to know what is going on OR what his future plans are. Since the jailer didn't have any competition in this last election cycle, we didn't get to hear any campaign promises or plans for this 4-year term, and it doesn't look like that information will be forthcoming any time soon. It should be.
IF there was a death at the jail, it remains a very private matter for the family, but it is a public issue that this type of thing may have happened at our jail. Everyone has been extremely tight-lipped about the murmurings and rumors of an alleged death at our jail. Most people we have asked say they know nothing about it, and we are unable to get confirmation of anything that has happened.
WE all need to be asking questions to put down any misinformation or half-truths. We have a few open records requests in the pipeline to go out this week, so perhaps we will get a few answers to some minor questions. If, and we say IF, there is an open investigation of a death at the Pulaski County Detention Center, we will not be able to get any of the details until the case is closed. In the meantime, we would love to get some answers to these questions:
Is there, or was there, a death investigation involving the Pulaski County Detention Center in June 2022?
If that answer is yes, is there more than one recent death or injury that is under investigation?
If so, why has the public not made aware?
Are there safety issues at the jail?
Is there an issue with staff? Understaffed? Undertrained? Excessive force?
If YES is the answer to any of these questions, what is being done about it? At any given time, a friend or loved one may in our local jail because of one wrong decision. We want to make sure it is a safe environment for the inmates, the public, and the staff.
WE are not saying that overcrowding caused a death, if there was one, but it certainly is a humanitarian issue in any facility that houses people. That leads to other questions:
What impact does the overcrowding have on the daily operations?
Why is our jail nearly double the capacity? For so long?
What benefit does overcrowding have for the county? Increased funding?
Is this having a negative impact on other agencies -- like the sheriff's office, the judicial system, courthouse security, probation & parole, prosecutors, defenders, etc.?
What are the conditions like inside the jail if it is past the max capacity? How are the inmates sleeping? Do they have adequate resources?
Has there been more reports of inmate violence in recent years?
Is there enough staff to manage the extra inmates?
Our jail is at least 30 years old, probably older; can it adequately handle twice the capacity safely?
IF there is an overcrowding problem, is it leading to the increased numbers in the homeless population?
Is anyone working to help place the inmates if they have nowhere to go after release?
Has the overcrowding increased the crime rate in our town? Inside and outside the jail.
*You can see for yourself the overcrowding numbers on the Pulaski County Detention Center’s webpage by clicking on the JailTracker link.
We will update this entry, if and when, our ORRs are granted or if new information is received.
SPA Editorial
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