Harrisburg, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – Over half of the inmates housed at the Poinsett County Detention Center were temporarily transferred to neighboring detention facilities after an electrical failure left the jail operating on backup generator power during this week’s extreme heat.
In a statement posted to the Poinsett County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, Sheriff Kevin Molder said an electrical junction box outside the detention center overheated during the early evening hours of Wednesday, July 1, causing a power outage at the facility.
The jail’s emergency generator activated as designed and has continued supplying electricity to the building. However, with outside temperatures soaring, some areas of the detention center became warmer than normal while operating on backup cooling units.
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As a precaution, jail staff began checking temperatures in those areas every 45 minutes to ensure conditions remained safe.
Molder said approximately half of the jail population was moved to nearby detention centers Thursday afternoon, with additional transfers taking place Friday morning before temperatures climbed higher. “The inmates that stayed in our facility have been consolidated into a smaller area where the back-up air conditioning units can cool more easily,” Molder said.
Speaking with JonesboroRightNow Friday morning, Molder said the department ultimately relocated 57 of the jail’s 92 inmates to other detention facilities while repairs were underway. He said the inmates will be returned once electrical service has been fully restored.
Molder also provided an updated timeline for repairs, saying Craighead Electric now expects power to be restored by approximately 1 p.m. Friday.
“At no time were detainees in danger of overheating,” Molder said in the statement. “Staff continued regular monitoring throughout the situation to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in custody.”
He praised detention officers and jail administrators for their response to the outage and thanked neighboring sheriffs and detention centers for assisting with housing inmates on short notice. “Everyone has been working in the heat,” Molder said. “Our jail staff and administration have b een working in the same environment to keep it all running. They have done an amazing job with what has been thrown at them.”
“We are also grateful for the strong working relationships we have with surrounding sheriffs and detention centers, which have been instrumental in assisting with the temporary relocation process, especially given that many facilities are operating near capacity,” Molder said.
Craighead Electric crews and other qualified professionals have been on site since the outage began Wednesday evening working to replace the failed equipment and restore normal electrical service to the detention center.
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