Callaway Jail faces overcrowding with female inmates

Commission set to investigate solutions in coming months

According to Callaway County Sheriff Dennis Crane, when the Callaway County Jail was designed back in 1989, "if we held two or three (female inmates) we were doing good."

In anticipation of future growth, the facility was built with a female holding cell that would hold up to 12 women at a time.

Two decades later, the Callaway jail steadily houses a female population of well over that number, and local officials are facing the very real possibility that it may be necessary to expand the facility to accommodate those numbers.

"Now we're maintaining well above (12) - we had 22 at one time, now we're down to 20; the average is about 18," Crane said, adding there has not been a similar problem with the male population. "Our work release program cell holds 16, so we switched the women to the work release cell and work release to the women's cell, but it's still crowded."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.