Sharp County Detention Center top in the state
Tammy Curtis, Publisher
The Sharp County Detention Center has seen many positive changes under Sheriff Shane Russell’s administration. Recently, one of the most noteworthy was brought to light for the jail. While the safety of both the officers and inmates is the top priority, it is often the hardest to achieve near-perfect scores from jail standards.
Sharp County Jail scored a 99 percent-plus compliance rating from the Guardian System that monitors many safety and compliance-related items within the facility’s walls. Under Edith Elliot’s leadership, the jail has implemented the Guardian system. Jailers use this electronic system to track inmate activities, including medication and court appearances as well as when they move from cell to cell in the facility like for meals.
The jail employs 12 full-time and three part-time staff. Revenue streams include billing ADC for medical expenses and charging inmates for services, which generated $450,000 last year. The jail also implemented ankle monitors for inmates, which cost $10-$15 per day. Grants funded new equipment, including a $75,000 DPS grant and a $13,000 bulletproof vest grant. The jail also uses a golden doodle named Strutter for emotional support. Strutter can be seen frolicking about with his many friends who help care for him and has diffused many situations with his friendly presence in the facility.
When Edith Elliot first took over the Sharp County Detention Center reins on Oct. 19, 2023, she admits she was a bit intimidated and had no experience running a jail. She wasted no time attending every class and certification program she could to become knowledgeable of the facility’s day-to-day operations and, even more importantly, the safety of the inmates and staff. At that time, the jail had a very low rating of 12 percent/ and that was something she quickly became determined to change.
Elliot is very humble and says the entire success of the operations at the jail is a culmination of the work of her team of jailers. She said she has a wonderfully knowledgeable staff.
Sheriff Shane Russell realized early on that it was easier to recognize a hard worker and train them from scratch than to have to retrain someone who thought they knew what they were doing all along. This has been the key to Edith’s success and that of the Sharp County Detention Center, raising its compliance rating to a remarkable over 99 percent … one of only three in the state with this distinction.
She explained what goes on behind the scenes and the tools it takes to make the operation run like a well-oiled wheel. “I didn’t have to do the traditional jail standards training like a detention officer does. I actually had to go to a different class. It’s a 40-hour class, for jail administrators, and that’s basically where they told me what my job actually is and what I will be doing. I went down to camp Robinson for a week, soaking it all up and making some really great contacts.” She said her peers in the jail administration field have been very helpful. She also attended training for the jail’s Guardian system with Sheriff Russell. After that training, Elliot said she understood the massive liability the jail has to the county in regard to expenses. If an inmate or jailer is injured while in the facility’s care, it sets the county up for massive lawsuits. Hence, safety is paramount to everyone. The RFID-based scanning system ensures that all inmates are accounted for regarding location, medication, meals, court days, and anything they must do in their day-to-day activities while incarcerated. It also provides a digital paper trail to show what the jailer did with each inmate each shift.
A team of attorneys tracks reports digitally and automatically. The scans show any videos, photos, or medications given. The medications never go to the back as in the past; they must be scanned and indicate whether the inmate takes them or refuses them by the inmate’s signature. The system protects taxpayers’ dollars against potential lawsuits and helps keep the inmates and employees safer.
“If you’ve got somebody that’s supposed to take, for example, insulin twice a day, if you are not logging that they are taking their insulin, then they can forget that they have taken it, and someone gives it to them again, or it gets missed. With the Guardian system, you can go in there and look, and if we track everything that way.”
“I do want to go to training. I want to learn as much as possible anything that is changing within the field, whether it’s any of the the laws that have changed, or any new laws that are coming out, I want to be on top of it, because I do not want the county to be put in a situation that I created,” she explained.
Jailers must check security and cell checks, as well as every 15 minutes for medical or suicide-prone inmates. They must also check each cell hourly and monitor meal intake or refusal. The jail’s kitchen has also had great health inspections.
In addition to compliance, the jail has utilized several revenue streams that were not taken advantage of under former administrations.
Elliot explained things that her training has brought to the forefront. Previously, the jail was not billing the Arkansas Department of Corrections for medical costs for inmates housed in the jail for ADC. “ADC is responsible for any medical bills besides a house physician and OTC meds,” she explained. Elliot has straightened out these costs over two years and recovered funds for expenses weren’t charged under the previous administration.
They also began charging inmates for seeing the house doctor. If they are not ADC sentenced, medication must be paid for and billed to the inmate’s account, rather than the county paying for the medicines as it had under the previous administration. Pay to Stay is also added to the sentencing order at $35 per day to the inmate’s account. Elliot said about $451,000 was generated from various revenue streams for the jail over the last year.
The Sharp County Detention Center has also recently implemented an ankle monitoring system. The judge’s sentencing order for release with an ankle monitor can include a simple ankle monitor for $10 a day or $15 a day for the ankle monitors with alcohol testing strips in them. This allows the inmate who may not be as dangerous as some offenders to be released, contingent on payment of the fees for the monitor.
The county partnered with Buddy for the two types of monitors and is working with juvenile officers in Lawrence and Sharp County to implement the system with juveniles.
“I’m obviously very thankful to be here and doing something that makes a difference for our county. One of the things that’s very important to the sheriff and me is the detention officers’ attitude toward the inmates. When we took over, there was no hard line on how you could speak to somebody. There is a very hard line now. We don’t cuss inmates. We don’t yell at them. You’re going to be professional. My guys have really stepped up. I usually I have high expectations for people, especially if I’m hiring them. I like to think that they’re fully capable of doing it. They may not see it, but I do. I have to add that all of my guys have stepped up and gotten into the role I’ve expected of them,” she explained.
It is easy to see that the changes and professional staff at the Detention Center prioritize the best interests and safety of their inmates and staff and take seriously their role in being a good steward of Sharp County taxpayers’ dollars. A 99 percent-plus rating is something any county should be proud of, but the entire community should also be proud of the leadership of this detention staff.
