While more than 1,500 state prison inmates take up space in county jails, hundreds of prison beds now under construction in Malvern are likely to sit empty because the state has no money to staff them, state prison officials said Monday.

Arkansas Department of Correction officials gave the grim assessment of the prospects for opening the new prison beds as the Board of Corrections unanimously approved $6.3 million in cuts to the department’s budget during a teleconference Monday.

The cuts, which include reducing maintenance and operations expenses at the state’s 20 prisons and work release centers and holding some staff positions vacant, would leave the department with a core operating budget of $290.4 million for ...