County ready to welcome ACC employees, families to town

County ready to welcome ACC employees, families to town

Governor approves relocation of women’s center to West Memphis

ralphhardin@gmail.com It’s official. The former Crittenden Regional Hospital site will have a new tenant very soon when the Arkansas Department of Community Correction takes up residence in West Memphis.

Late last week, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson formally approved the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction center’s bid to relocate to Crittenden County, a move that will bring the Pine Bluffbased center to West Memphis and will involve transferring about 350 nonviolent female prisoners housed at the ACC unit.

It’s a move that has Crittenden County Judge Woody Wheeless rolling out the welcome wagon for any of the facility’s 138 correctional officers, counseling professionals, medical staff and other employees and their families who may be coming to the community with the move.

'Over the past several years Crittenden County has had very little growth in the job sector,' Wheeless said. 'These 138 jobs are much needed in our county, and we welcome all the families from Pine Bluff that wish to relocate here.'

About 10 to 15 percent of the current workers are expected to take jobs at the new location.

While the Pine Bluff community made a bid to Hutchinson to block the move, ultimately, it was the expenditure of taxpayer

Judge Woody Wheeless dollars to both sites that weighed in the governor's decision.

The deal has been a month in the making after the Quorum Court agreed to briefly extend a self-imposed March 1 deadline for turning off the utilities at the former hospital site. Wheeless has said the county has spent upward of $1 million keeping up the facility since Crittenden Regional vacated the building in August 2014, declaring bankruptcy and leaving the county without a hospital until a new Baptist hospital opens in 2018.

The state Board of Corrections approved a measure March 15 for the Arkansas Community Correction agency to lease the vacant hospital from Crittenden County. Hutchinson told Arkansas Community Correction Director Sheila Sharp and Arkansas Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness to ensure that the agencies “do all it can to meet the employment needs of those who would be taking the transfer and those who would not.”

Specifically, the governor said Arkansas Community Correction would secure job vacancy listings for all state agencies in Pine Bluff and surrounding areas. The agency's staff will remain in contact with human resources directors of those agencies to assist displaced employees in applying for jobs for which they are qualified. The Arkansas Association of Correctional Employees Trust, a nonprofit

employees benevolent

association, has also pledged money to families making the move to West Memphis.

The ACC has also said will help transferring employees find housing, schools and other services in West Memphis. Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said those who don't want to stay with community correction but are willing to go to West Memphis temporarily, housing will be available for them in West Memphis until they find other employment, calling the relocation “very much a fluid situation.'

The move was necessitated, according to ACC officials, as an alternative to spending millions of dollars in upgrades and repairs to keep the Pine Bluff campus functional. The former Crittenden Regional facility will require some retrofitting — Arkansas Community Correction has said the work could be done for $650,000 — including secure doors and windows, and surveillance equipment, and repairs to fix some fire and water damage. The building was built to accommodate 150 patients and can house

Flood

at least four inmates to a room.

'The change in location is in the best interest of the state and its financial constraints,' said Hutchinson.

'To move the female residents of that facility to a single building where they may live and work toward rehabilitation under one roof, as well as to increase the likelihood that their services will be increased and enhanced, is an opportunity that the state must seize while it can.'

Locally, there has been some vocal opposition to bringing the facility to West Memphis, primarily due to the idea of having a prison, even a treatment facility for nonviolent drug offenders, in the heart of the community, near West Memphis City Hall and the Civic Complex. Apair of informational town hall meetings were held and citizens were polled on Facebook ahead of the move. Ultimately, the pairing of bringing jobs to the community and finding a tenant for the empty hospital building added up to the decision to make the agreement.

By Ralph Hardin