It may not look like much on the outside but inside the Northwest Arkansas Community Corrections Center, women’s lives are changing.
“It’s priceless,” Kachia Phillips said. “That time in there for me was precious.”
Several volunteer groups work at the prison to give support and life skills to the women inside, who are state prisoners.
Washington County Justice of the Peace Beth Coger said the reputation of the center speaks for itself, mostly thanks to its low recidivism rates.
“When we had the Criminal Justice Assessment Study in 2020 by the National Center of State Courts, they said our NWACCC is a model of what a prison should be,” she said. “The reason that is, is because the women there actually get treatment.”
All of this is now coming to an end.
“The first time I remember hearing this was March 29th of 2024 when everyone on the Quorum Court got a letter from Judge Deakins that he was canceling the lease as of December 31st this year unless they can reach an agreement as to rent,” said Coger.
Right now, the Arkansas Department of Corrections leases the facility from Washington County for $1. Judge Patrick Deakins told us back in April that he wants to use the building to help with overcrowding in the Washington County Jail.
“Either we need to be adequately paid for that facility or we are going to use it as extra jail bed space to relieve some of the suffering we are having at our Washington County Detention Center,” he told us.
I don’t think it’s a fair assumption that the faith groups are doing that. The facility itself really isn’t a prison. The article says:
An good argument could be made that the type prisoners sent to such a facility are very unlikely to re-offend in the first place. That chance is further reduced simply by the fact that it’s not a facility that is focused on punishment and is focused on rehabilitation with or without religious overtones. I don’t for a moment believe evangelizing them helps keep them out of prison.