By Ray King
A lawsuit has been filed by the City of Pine Bluff against Jefferson County seeking to enforce an agreement between the city and county dealing with fees for bed space at the adult detention center and which goes back more than 15 years.
The lawsuit was filed by Pine Bluff City Attorney Althea Hadden Scott on behalf of Mayor Shirley Washington and names County Judge Gerald Robinson, Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr., and the 13 members of the Jefferson County Quorum Court as defendants. It was electronically filed on Monday.
In 2006, the late County Judge Jack Jones, then Pine Bluff Mayor Carl Redus Jr., and attorneys representing the city and county reached an agreement and settlement of a prior lawsuit between the city and county over fees for jail bed space which began in 2004.
According to that settlement agreement, Pine Bluff paid approximately $960,900 from March 2006 through December 2008 in exchange for the county reserving a minimum of 75 jail beds and the city had first priority on an additional 30 beds.
During that time, there was a campaign to build a new jail (now the W.C. “Dub” Brassell Adult Detention Center) by imposing a half-cent sales tax increase, with one quarter cent of that to sunset when the construction was complete. The county sought support from the city for the tax increase and four members of the council and the Mayor pledged to support the tax.
The settlement goes on to say that the county will cover the costs of housing prisoners including city prisoners as long as the 75 bed and 30 bed allotment have not been reached. The agreement also provides that it can not be modified or any terms waived unless done in writing and agreed to by all parties.
There have been no modifications to the agreement, the city’s filing said. In December, 2020, Jefferson County adopted an ordinance authorizing the county judge to impose a fee of $30 per day for each inmate received from the cities in the county.
The lawsuit said Pine Bluff has received a bill from Jefferson County for January 2021 in the amount of $9,780 and for February for $6,150 “not withstanding the explicit language prohibiting the County from imposing any charges on the City of Pine Bluff unless the City uses more beds that allotted to the City.”
It goes on to say that based on the invoices from the county, Pine Bluff used no more than 32 beds were used by City detainees for 366 days in January and 19 beds for City detainees for February.
County Judge Gerald Robinson said Thursday night he has not been served with a copy of the lawsuit and declined to comment on it.
