The Union County Quorum Court has approved a new daily fee for municipalities in the county that house inmates at the county jail.
The rate was set for $40 per day beginning May 1 at the meeting Thursday. The Quorum Court also agreed that the rate should be reviewed annually.
Union County Sheriff Ricky Roberts said the new rate will not apply to the El Dorado Police Department, who will continue to be billed $13,500 a month for housing El Dorado’s inmates.
The ordinance will apply to all other municipalities in the county including Smackover, Norphlet, Strong, Huttig, Calion and Junction City.
“Prisoners of municipalities” are each municipalities responsibility until one of three things happen. One, the prosecutor charges the inmate with a felony offense. Two, they are sentenced on a misdemeanor offense. Three, if a person is arrested on a city ordinance (violating their own city’s ordinance), they are the responsibility of that city until their sentence is complete, “which is whatever that judge decides to sentence them,” Roberts said. “We don’t see very many of the city ordinance charges.”
The Quorum Court voted unanimously to charge cities without a contract with the Union County Sheriff’s office a daily fee of $40 starting May 1. The rate will be reviewed each year.
Justice Ross Burton clarified that if an officer working for that municipality makes the arrest, it is their responsibility, but if a county officer makes the arrest, it is the county’s responsibility.
Smackover is the only municipality besides El Dorado in the county with its own police department. Norphlet, Strong, Huttig, Calion and Junction City have only part-time officers.
“I went back and looked. Smackover is probably averaging about four to five (inmates) a month,” Roberts said.
Justice Dean Storey said he thinks El Dorado is concerned that they are the only ones paying a jail fee “and that needs to be addressed.”
Roberts said the new rate will address that issue.
The city of El Dorado has an unofficial contract with the Union County jail to pay $13,500 each month in 2018, which comes out at a flat annual rate of $162,000. For the months of January and February, Roberts said he billed El Dorado for the $13,500, and they sent back $10,000.
In a jail committee meeting last October, El Dorado Police Chief Billy White requested to do away with the $162,000 and reduce it to $120,000, which would be $10,000 a month.
Roberts said for the month of March, El Dorado did pay the $13,500, but he has sent a letter to Mayor Frank Hash requesting the $7,000 owed for the months of January and February.
The law says that if the county has not billed the city for the fee, they can’t go back and ask for it. Roberts said since he did bill $13,500 and only received $10,000 for January and February, they can ask for the remaining $7,000.
Justice Johnny Burson said that over 20 years ago, when Justice Mike Dumas was tasked with setting a rate for the jail, “every mayor in Union County signed on to support the jail.”
For over 20 years, the rate was set at $24 a day per inmate from municipalities in Union County.
“As time went on, the smaller cities started dropping out and did away with their police force, so we became their law enforcement officers and picked up the full jail fees too,” Burson said. “It started off pretty fair, but it’s gotten one sided as the years went on. Fair would be every city pays their part.”
Roberts said they are going to continue running the numbers and at the end of the year, “we’ll see where we go from there.”
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].