Hempstead County AR Jail

Hempstead County AR Jail basic information to help guide you through what you can do for your inmate while they are incarcerated. The facility's direct contact number: 870-777-7850

This facility is for adult inmates.

The Hempstead County AR Jail is a medium-security detention center located at 312 Washington St Hope, AR which is operated locally by the Hempstead County Sheriff's Office and holds inmates awaiting trial or sentencing or both. Most of the sentenced inmates are here for less than two years. Hempstead County accepts inmates from surrounding towns, municipalities, the US Marshal's Service and the Hope Police Department who do not have their own long-term lock-up.

The county jail houses those charged and awaiting trial, those arrested on warrants, those serving sentences at the county jail, those placed on holds by Parole and Probation, those sentenced to and awaiting beds in the state prison system or Community Corrections, those sentenced by municipal courts in our county as well as others placed here on holds for other agencies.

The 100-bed jail can house subjects accused of all levels of charges. They are responsible for securely holding all of these individuals as well as providing a safe environment. Pretrial confinement is not for punishment purposes. It is merely to assure that the arrestee appears in court. Sentenced inmates, on the other hand, are here as punishment for their offense. It is the responsibility of the deputies and civilian staff to make productive use of the inmates time, but not to inflict further punishment upon them.

All persons who are arrested and taken into custody are transported to the Detention Center for booking and incarceration. The Detention Center is divided into separate housing areas for low/medium security risk males, high-security risk males, and female inmates, as well as isolation and temporary holding cells. The Detention Center houses both pre-trial detainees and post-conviction inmates who are serving sentences or awaiting transport to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

The Detention Center has an in-house medical facility area used by the staff physician and nurse practitioner. In addition, there is a full kitchen where all meals are prepared for inmates. The kitchen is staffed by a Cook and by "Act 309" inmates, who are state prisoners assigned to work duties in local detention facilities.

visitation Info

Hempstead County Detention Center – Visitation

Inmate Video Visitation – With the recently installed video visitation kiosk in each pod in the detention center inmates and family members will be able to visit seven days a week from 8AM – 8PM remotely from home without ever having to come to the detention center.

To take advantage of the Video Visitation go to the following Web site and follow its instruction – hempsteadar.citytelecoin.com

Video visitation allows the inmate and visitor to communicate via analog or digital videoconferencing equipment. Under the old method of face-to-face visitation, inmates were transferred from their housing area to the visitation area requiring Detention Officers to get the inmates out of the cell and walk them to and from the visitation area.          

With video visitation, inmates will use a video visitation station located in their cell or cell block, while visitors can use a corresponding station elsewhere—or even use their computers from home. This greatly reduces the amount of manpower needed to conduct visits by reducing the movement of inmates; reducing inmate movement also reduces contraband at the facility.

The family of an inmate will be able to have more visits at different times of the day. And family members living elsewhere in the state or nation can visit from their own homes via a home computer.

Some of the Benefits of Video Visitation will reduce offender movement within facility, reduce the flow of contraband, Increase safety and security while decreasing burden on staff, allows for greater flexibility in scheduling visits, provides better control over the visitation process and will allow those family members under 18 to visit with their family members who are incarcerated, current policy does not allow for anyone under the age of 18 to visit.

Another benefit is that inmates will be able to have the rules and regulations, Law Library, medical requests, grievance forms, and other inmate related request forms available electronically in their cell 24 hours a day, instead of waiting on paper forms that have to be given out by detention officers. All requests will be filed electronically directly to the jail administrator, or anyone else in the facility. This will also free up detention personnel to preform duties.

The video Visitation is being installed by CTC Communications Company from Bossier City, Louisiana the same company that furnishes the inmate telephone system for the jail. There will be no upfront costs to the county for installation or equipment. The video visitation will generate funds to pay for itself over a three year period and after that, the Detention Center will receive a monthly commission from the company as it does with the phone system.

As the date for installation nears further information on how to access the video visitation will be available.