About Prison

The Howard County Detention Facility, the local jail facility for Howard County Arkansas, is run by the Howard County Sheriff’s Office.  The Howard County Sheriff is Bryan McJunkins.  Sheriff McJunkins is responsible for the Detention Center, but the Jail Administrator is in charge of the day-to-day operations at the jail facility.

The Howard County Detention Facility was opened in August of 1993.  It was built with proceeds from a sales tax increase and is currently large enough to meet the needs of Howard County.  With the exception of a food service employee, the staff at the jail is composed of jailers/dispatchers.  This means that jailers can work as jailers or as 911 dispatchers, depending on scheduling needs and demands.  Currently, there are 11 employees on the jail staff.

When a person is taken into custody in Howard County he or she is transported to the Howard County Detention Facility for booking and incarceration.  While held at the Howard County Detention Facility, inmates are housed according to Arkansas Jail Standards.  A typical county jail type facility, the Detention Facility houses a variety of different types of inmates including pre-trial detainees, misdemeanor detainees, Act 309 inmates, and felony convicted inmates who are awaiting transport to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.  It is an adult facility and it houses both male and female inmates.

While in custody, inmates have access to a variety telephone calls, visitation, and even a television.  The jail is a non-smoking facility, but inmates may be permitted to smoke if they are approved to work outside of the facility.  The detention facility has a full-service kitchen, which is overseen by Lois Bowlin.  She supervises Act 309 inmates.  Act 309 inmates are state prisoners who are assigned to local detention facilities for work duties.

All of the Detention Facility staff are trained to handle both jail duties and dispatch.  They must complete a 40-hour training to become a certified jailer, which is offered by the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy, as well as certified training from the Arkansas/National Crime Information Center for dispatch training on terminals.  In addition, they are trained to operate the Datamaster Breathalyzer machines and run blood alcohol content (BAC) tests.  As jailers/booking officers, these jail staffers are responsible for processing prisoners at intake.  They search the inmates for contraband, photograph them, fingerprint them, book them into the computer, and assign them a housing cell block.  In addition, they are responsible for ensuring that the facility is secure, observing the inmates, and communicating with inmates.  As dispatchers, officers are responsible for answering incoming phone calls, handling radio communications with deputies from the Howard County Sheriff’s Office as well as the Nashville Police Officers, Mineral Springs Police Officers, Dierks Police Officers, Arkansas State Troopers, and any other officers in the field.  They also handle inquiries and entries for the NCIC/ACIC information system.

Jana Tallant is the current Howard County Detention Facility Jail Administrator.  As the Jail Administrator, she is responsible for overseeing daily operations at the jail, including providing the inmates with supervision, medical, mental health, and dental care.  She is responsible for addressing any inmate concerns, requests, or grievances, as well as supervising jail staff.  She is in charge of jailer/dispatcher training, including continuing education.  In addition, she is responsible for staffing decisions, though she works with the Sheriff to make those decisions.  The Jail Administrator handles employee records, scheduling vacations and holidays, and payroll.  In addition, she helps coordinate and carry out sentencing for misdemeanor detainees and those sentenced to community service.

Howard County Detention Facility Addresses

The Howard County Detention Facility is located at:

Physical Address

101 Isaac Perkins Blvd.
Nashville, AR 71852

Mailing Address

The mailing address for non-inmate mail is:

The Howard County Detention Facility
101 Isaac Perkins Blvd.
Nashville, AR 71852

Inmate Mailing Address

The mailing address inmate mail is:

Inmate’s Full Name, Inmate Booking Number C/O
Howard County Detention Facility
101 Isaac Perkins Blvd.
Nashville, AR 71852

The Howard County Detention Facility does not post mail rules online.  Inmates are allowed to give and receive mail, but almost all inmate mail has restrictions.  We have included general inmate mail rules that should increase your chances of having your inmate mail accepted at the Howard County Detention Facility.

Do not send anything to an inmate that could be considered contraband.  Contraband not only includes prohibited items and weapons, but also anything that could be used to make prohibited items.  Prohibited items include weapons, alcohol, drugs, racist material, incendiary material, materials that could be used to plot an escape, and criminal materials.  Any material in code might be considered contraband.  If you send an inmate contraband item, that could result in the inmate facing disciplinary action and criminal charges and could result in you being banned from further inmate mail or even subject to criminal charges, as well.

In addition to items that could pose a direct danger in the jail facility, inmates also cannot receive items that could be used to create dangerous or hazardous situations or might be used as currency in lieu of cash in the jail.  This includes things like cash, personal checks, postage stamps, clothing, food items, drinks, paper clips, newspapers, magazines, stickers, staples, books, personal checks, Polaroid photographs, sexually explicit materials, obscene materials, nude photographs, prepaid phone cards, rubber brands, musical greeting cards, greeting cards with plastic parts or moving parts, razor blades, or violent material.

You cannot send books, magazines, or newspapers directly to an inmate.  However, inmates can receive those items (softcover books only).  They just have to be sent to the inmate from an authorized publisher or book seller.

Phone Number

The Howard County Detention Facility’s main phone number is 870-845-2626.  The phone is answered 24/7, but office hours are Monday through Friday, from 8:00am to 4:30pm.

Inmate Search

The Howard County Detention Facility maintains an inmate roster that lists all inmates currently detained in the facility.  The roster is alphabetical and pulls up all inmates in the facility.  You then search for the inmate or can look at the entire list.  The inmate record contains a mugshot/ booking photo, the inmate’s full name, the inmate’s booking number, the booking date, the charges against the inmate, and a link to view the inmate’s profile.  If you click on the link to view an inmate’s profile, then you get the inmate’s age, race, gender, and address.  If an inmate is bail-eligible, you will find bail information on the profile page on the inmate roster. 

Bookings / Recent Arrests

Although the Howard County Detention Facility does not have a recent booking page, you can find booking dates on its inmate roster.  There is no function to search by booking date, but, because it is a relatively small facility, these searches are not very difficult.  You can scan all of the records for booking dates in a matter of seconds.  In addition, the Howard County Detention Facility maintains a database for inmates who have been released in the last 48 hours.  This roster provides inmates in the order that they have been released, starting with most recent releases.  Like the inmate roster, you have the option of looking at an expanded record for each inmate.  That inmate record contains a mugshot/ booking photo;  booking number; the inmate’s first, last and middle names; the booking date; the charges against the inmate; the inmate’s age, gender, and race; and the inmate’s address.

Mugshots

While the Howard County Detention Facility does not maintain a dedicated mugshot database, you can find mugshots on the inmate roster and on the list of inmates who have been released in the last 48 hours. 

Jail Visitation

Inmates at the Howard County Detention Facility are entitled to visitors.  Because it is a smaller facility, you may be able to schedule visitation as long as it is during normal administrative or visitation hours.   Contact the jail at 870-845-2626 for information about an inmate’s visitation schedule and to schedule a visitation.  Generally, visitation hours are during the week and include the following times: Monday 9am to 6pm; Tuesday 9am to 6pm; Wednesday 9am to 6pm; Thursday 9am to 6pm; and Friday 9am to 6pm.  All visits at the Howard County Detention are non-contact and are conducted through a glass partition.  The Howard County Detention Facility does not offer video or remote visitation.  Each inmate can have up to 2 visitors per day.

General visitation rules that apply in the jail are that all adult visitors must present a valid government-issued photo ID to visit.  Driver’s licenses and state-issued ID cards are acceptable.  If you have questions about whether your photo ID is acceptable, contact the jail before you visit.

When visiting inmates at the jail, you will be subject to a warrant check.  All visitors must be approved for visitation.  If you have any outstanding warrants, you can be arrested if you try to visit an inmate at the jail facility.

Any visitors who are coming to the jail will be checked for outstanding warrants before being allowed to visit.  Visitors who have outstanding warrants will be arrested.

Visitors should not bring anything into the visitation area, including: food, drinks, nicotine products, alcohol, drugs, medications, cell phones, weapons, electronic items, or papers of any kind.  Visitors are subject to search.  While visitors can refuse to be searched, doing so can result in losing your visitation privileges.  Unless the jail has given prior approval, minor visitors must be accompanied by an adult.  All children must be attended at all times; children cannot be left unattended in the jail lobby or in vehicles outside of the jail.

Visitors should dress modestly when visiting the Howard County Detention Facility. The jailers are responsible for determining if a visitor’s dress is appropriate.  Clothing that is prohibited includes: see-through clothing, cleavage-revealing clothing, midriff-baring clothing, halter tops, tank tops, spaghetti straps, fishnet clothing, short-shorts, mini-skirts, and skirts or dresses with high slits in them.  All visitors must wear shirts.  All visitors must wear appropriate undergarments.  All visitors must wear shoes.  No clothing with gang language or signs, profanity, sexually explicit words or images, or racist words or images is permitted.

Inmate Phone Privileges

Howard County Detention Facility inmates cannot receive incoming phone calls.  However, if you have a legitimate emergency, which you can verify, you can contact the jail to see if the jailer on duty will have the inmate return your call or otherwise relay information to an inmate.

Inmates are allowed to make outgoing phone calls.  These phone calls may be collect calls or inmates may be able to use commissary/canteen funds to put money on their calling accounts.  If an inmate has a phone account, then the calls are prepaid.  This can be useful, not so much in terms of monetary savings, but because many cell phones are unable to accept collect phone calls.  In that case, if an inmate does not have a phone account and you do not have a landline, you will be unable to accept a phone call from an inmate.

If you receive a phone call from jail, you should be aware that all jail phone calls, except for calls to lawyers, are monitored and recorded.  Jail phone calls cannot be forwarded, cannot be placed on hold, cannot be three way calls, and cannot use call-waiting.  Attempting to do any of those during the call can result in your call being disconnected.

Inmate Trust Accounts / Commissary

Commissary accounts are a way for inmates to purchase items that are not provided by the jail.  Inmates are prohibited from having cash, currency, or any type of negotiable instrument while in jail.  Therefore, if they want to purchase anything, they need to use funds from a commissary or canteen account, which is also known as an inmate trust account.

Commissary, which is also known as canteen, refers to stores set up to service correctional institutions.  Usually, they do not function as stores, but instead as a sort of correctional version of Amazon.  Inmates order their desired items from commissary and there is a set delivery day each week.  Inmates can only order items from commissary if they have enough funds in their inmate trust accounts and they must place their orders by a set time to get deliver that week.  Inmates who do for-pay work while incarcerated will have their paychecks deposited into their commissary accounts.

The items available from the commissary or canteen can vary from time-to-time.  Items commonly found on the commissary list include: snack foods, beverages, clothing, underwear, shoes, hygiene products, feminine hygiene products, soaps, shampoos, lotions, toothpaste, shavers, writing supplies, art supplies, books, magazines, cards, other entertainment items, and even some electronics.  Inmates who cannot afford writing money or stamps may be entitled to free items from the jail, as long as they qualify as indigent.

Howard County does not provide information about how to deposit money into inmate trust accounts.  You can often use services like MoneyGram or WesternUnion to send money to inmates.  You may be able to send money orders to the jail to be deposited to the inmate’s account.  You may also be able to take cash to the jail during lobby or visitation hours to deposit money into an inmate’s account.  To make sure you have up-to-date information about how to deposit money into Howard County Detention Facility’s trust accounts, contact the detention facility.

Bail Information

When you look at the inmate roster, it might have bail information.  However, the Howard County Detention Facility specifically directs bond companies and individuals wishing to post bail to contact the Detention Center Staff at 870-845-2626 for correct bail information, charges, and case numbers.

Conclusion

The Howard County Detention Facility is a county-level detention facility for Howard County.  It holds detainees who are arrested by the Howard County Sheriff’s Office as well as by other law enforcement agencies in Howard County.  It holds male and female inmates.  It holds pre-trial detainees, inmates who have been sentenced and are awaiting transfer, and inmates serving their sentences at the jail facility.  It is located at 101 Isaac Perkins Blvd. in Nashville, Arkansas.  The Howard County Detention Facility’s phone number is 870-845-2626.