By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Hiring for the third phase -- a medium security facility -- at the Federal Correctional Institution-Forrest City could begin late this year.
At the same time, the hoped-for fourth phase -- a maximum security facility -- while not dead, is not a priority at this time.
That was the word given to members of the prison's Community Relations Board during the board's regular quarterly meeting Wednesday.
According to Assistant Warden Mike Morris, a warden for the medium-security facility could be named sometime in August. General hiring could begin in December or a little earlier.
Tammi Sanderhoff, controller at the prison, was able to give some estimates on the economic impact of the phase when it's completed.
The overall prison staff will be increased by about 278 people, with 60 percent living within 50 miles of the prison and others moving in. She said the new staff would generate an annual payroll of about $19 million, while there would also be another $8 million in annual operating funds.
Next year should also see another $20 to $30 million in expenditures on equipment, trucks, office supplies, etc.
She said the average salary would be around $41,800, but that includes everyone from the warden and assistant wardens to guards and secretaries.
Morris added that the Federal Bureau of Prisons is feeling the economic downturn like everyone else.
"Also, our population of federal inmates has tended to level off in the last three years," Morris said. "The population was projected, in 1995, to be 175,000 by 2003. It has not happened."
The federal prison inmate population is more like 105,000 to 110,000, he said. The reason, he said, is a shift in priorities since Sept. 11, 2001.
"If you can draw a line from where it changed, it changed on 9-11," he said.
Morris said it came down to priorities. Money which was being used for drug interdiction was shifted to homeland security. That meant the number of drug arrests decreased, and the majority of federal inmates are serving time on drug-related offenses.
"When you have less money to spend, you are going to have fewer arrests," Morris said.
This leveling off of the prison population has also affected the future of the maximum-security prison at the FCI-Forrest City complex.
"I'm not saying it's not going to happen," Morris said. "But it's certainly not on the front burner. There just isn't the population requirement at this time...Until Congress puts more money into the drug war, we don't have enough inmates to fill more prisons."
He said that could change, and the fourth phase at FCI-FC could be built. There are already a low-security facility and a minimum-security camp, and the medium-security facility will be the third phase.
Morris said it was fortunate that the decision on the third phase was not made later, or it might not have been built.
Morris was asked about contracting with the state to house
overflow state inmates. He said there has been some talk about
that, and said it has been done in some places.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The wave of the future -- or at least what may be -- could be coming to St. Francis County for the 2004 election season.
It's called SERVE, for Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment.
According to Victor Bobbitt with Hart Intercivic, the service, at least at first, will be mainly for military personnel overseas, although U.S. citizens who are overseas will also be able to use the system.
Someday, it might be how everyone votes.
Bobbitt and William A. Jordan II, senior software engineer with Election Solutions Group, were at the St. Francis County Courthouse, this morning, looking into how the system could be made to work locally.
Bobbitt said there can be a problem with getting ballots to military personnel, especially if times of conflict.
"Getting them the ballots and getting them back home on time is a problem," he said.
He said the system is secure, and although it allows one to register and vote on-line, there are verification steps the would-be voter must take. The effort is being geared toward the primary and general election of 2004.
"This could be the model everyone will use, if it works," said Bobbitt. Then he laughed and said, "if it doesn't' work, you might not hear about it for another 10 years."
Two bridges are scheduled to be replaced on Interstate 40 in St. Francis County as part of a statewide I-40 improvement project.
The Arkansas State Highway Commission has opened bids for improvements to 16 miles of I-40, extending from Highway 38 eastward to Shearerville. The work is part of the state's Interstate Rehabilitation Program, and work will include construction to a pair of main lane bridges and the raising of three overpasses, according to a press release. When completed, over 350 miles of interstate highway will have been rehabilitated statewide under the program.
M.J. Lee Construction Co., of Tulsa, Okla., was the apparent low bidder on the project with a bid of just over $10.5 million.
"Interstate 40 is one of the most heavily traveled roadways in Arkansas," said ASHC Chairman Buddy Benafield of Hickory Plains. "These improvements will make travel safer for motorists traveling Interstate 40 in St. Francis County."
A second project in this area will resurface 3.5 miles of Highway 284 from Newcastle northward to Village Creek state Park in Cross County. Drummond Asphalt Construction Company Inc., of Wynne, was the apparent low bidder at $434,964.63.
Benafield said construction could begin on the projects in six to eight weeks, weather permitting.
Completion of the I-40 project is expected in 2005.
Work on the Highway 284 project should be completed this fall.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
With Memorial Day weekend upon us, the Arkansas State Police and Forrest City Police Department are participating in the Click It or Ticket program in an effort to save lives.
The program is to heighten awareness of the seat belt laws nationwide and is conducted year round, but special emphasis is placed on high travel holidays like this weekend. The current advertised campaign began this week, and will run through Sunday, June 1.
Ann Whitehead with the Arkansas Highway Safety Office stated that motorists will need to buckle-up this holiday weekend. "The state police will be doing saturation patrols and working overtime in addition to their regular patrols. There are over 140 law enforcement agencies in the state, including city, county and even college police, who will join countless other agencies around the nation to encourage seat belt use."
According to Whitehead, the major focus of this year's Click It or Ticket is younger drivers. "Research has shown that drivers from the age of 16 to 20 have a very low rate of wearing seat belts. We have educated about 64 percent of Arkansas drivers to wear seat belts, the percentage of 16 to 20-year-olds that buckle-up is well below that figure. Statistics from the 2001 Memorial Day campaign show that 83 percent of the 12 fatalities in Arkansas that year were people in that age range who were not wearing their seat belts.
"We started last year heavily advertising the program to reach these young people. We are pleased with the results because in 2002, we had only two fatalities."
Forrest City Police Chief Clarence McNeary discussed what citizens in Forrest City can expect from the local police effort during Click It or Ticket.
"We will have random checkpoints throughout the city during the campaign. Although we can't pull adults over for not wearing a seat belt (it is a secondary law in Arkansas), we can and will pull over anyone who does not have a child under the age of 15 properly restrained, which is a primary law. And of course, we will be looking for other traffic violations like DWI (driving while intoxicated), like always.
"Our goal is to educate the public in seat belt use, to encourage it. This is something that people should be doing anyway for their own safety. The threat of a ticket for many people is enough to get them to buckle-up. Another part of the education is word of mouth. If one person gets pulled over for speeding and also gets ticketed for not wearing a seat belt, and they tell their friends we are serious about this, then more people will buckle-up."
McNeary says that motorists should keep this in mind about
the Click It or Ticket program, "Remember, this is not about
handing out tickets, it's about saving lives."
A Forrest City man has been sentenced to state prison for the rape of a Widener girl.
John McIntosh, 20, 1908 SFC 735, was arrested in July last year for the rape of a 13-year-old girl at her home near the St. Francis River levee at Widener.
The original charge of rape was reduced to sexual assault for which McIntosh was sentenced to seven years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
According to court records, McIntosh was visiting at the girl's home when the assault occurred.
A Haynes man wanted for owing a large amount of back child support was arrested during a domestic disturbance Tuesday in Forrest City.
According to the Forrest City Police Department, at about 9:30 p.m., an officer was called to 408 Ash St., where he found a man in the street cursing. The man began running, and after a foot chase he was finally stopped in a field behind Family Dollar Store.
According to the report, the suspect, Lennell Wade Jr., 37, was uncooperative with authorities and pepper spray was used on him. He was charged with fleeing and refusal to submit to arrest before being released to the Marianna Police Department which had a warrant for him regarding $27,000 he allegedly owes in back child support.