The stalemate over funding for a new state prison continues in the Arkansas Legislature. Yesterday, members of the Senate voted down an appropriations bill for a new 3,000-bed prison for the fifth time in a meeting. The bill would provide three-quarters of a billion dollars for the new prison in the west Arkansas city of Charleston. Republican Sen. Breanne Davis said a new prison is needed to deal with an overflow of state inmates currently housed in county jails.
Republican Sen. Bryan King, whose district encompasses the site of the proposed prison, said the state should work to reduce crime instead of building large new prisons. The bill received a few more votes than in previous Senate floor sessions, though it still did not meet the 27-vote threshold required to pass.
