{"id":632225,"date":"2026-05-09T04:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/632225\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T04:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:24:09","slug":"northeast-arkansas-jails-to-lose-mental-health-services-as-provider-will-not-renew-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/632225\/","title":{"rendered":"Northeast Arkansas jails to lose mental health services as provider will not renew contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) – Hundreds of inmates across Northeast Arkansas jails will lose access to mental health services after Arisa Health announced it will not submit to a new contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arisa Health, the designated Community Mental Health Center, announced Friday it would not submit to a new contract, saying in a statement \u201cthe level of supplemental support required in the most recent contract cycle has grown exponentially and is no longer sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s services include mental health screenings for incarcerated people and finding facilities for inmates who could be a threat to themselves or others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty terrible news for all of the jails around here,\u201d said Byron Carter, major at Poinsett County Detention Center.<\/p>\n

Carter works with inmates every day and sees what the partnership does.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose individuals may not get the help that they need. And it really impacts the inmates and how they act in our facility,\u201d Carter said. \u201cAnd that impacts the morale and things of our staff, because they\u2019re having to deal with and take care of issues that could be taken care of with a mental health facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company cited approximately $4.4 million reduction from the Invitation for Bid Solicitation.<\/p>\n

Arkansas Representative Dwight Tosh, who worked years in law enforcement, said he wants to know how things got to this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, as a legislator, where that issue should have been addressed, you know, when we started the physical session, that should have been brought in,\u201d Tosh said. \u201cNow, I\u2019m not saying it wasn\u2019t, but that should have been brought to the DHS\u2019s attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arisa\u2019s contract will end on June 30. Carter said staff at the detention center in Poinsett County have mental health training, but not at the level a professional would.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we have a lot of individuals that come into our facility with mental health issues,\u201d Carter said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not equipped to completely handle that type of situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arisa will also cease operating as the state\u2019s provider for mobile crisis and forensic restoration services.<\/p>\n

Tosh said his goal is to ensure those services don\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, you know, those mental health programs, we have to address that. We can\u2019t leave that gap in there that doesn\u2019t provide those mental health services,\u201d Tosh said.<\/p>\n

Carter said he doesn\u2019t know what will happen by June 30, but he knows what could happen to some of the people sitting in a cell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the most important thing: getting these individuals the help that they need,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

In a partial statement, Arisa said: \u201cOnce DHS announces the new CMHC providers for each region, Arisa will work closely with them to support a smooth transition and help clients maintain access to care.\u201d<\/p>\n

To report a typo or correction, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KAIT. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) – Hundreds of inmates across Northeast Arkansas jails will lose access to mental health services…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[273240,97,11362,984,259,260],"class_list":["post-632225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-arisa","tag-health","tag-jail","tag-mental","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}