A working group of Arkansas state leaders has engaged in a thoughtful effort to analyze sentencing data, audit corrections and community supervision policies, and forge consensus on a package of reforms that will protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and contain corrections costs. This effort comes at a time when corrections reform is demonstrably needed.

Over the past 20 years, Arkansas’s population has increased by slightly more than 10 percent, but the state's prison population has increased by more than 100 percent. This dramatic increase has come at a significant cost to state taxpayers. Annual corrections spending has skyrocketed from $45 million to $349 million, and it now consumes eight percent of the state general fund. Arkansas spends eight percent of its budget on corrections, compared to the national average of 6.7 percent.[1]

Despite this growth in prison population and spending, Arkansans are getting a poor return on their public safety dollars. Recidivism and crime rates remain stubbornly high. Of the 27,174 adults who entered probation in 2004 to 2006, 21.7 percent returned to jail within three years.[2]

The Arkansan working group has put an emphasis on prioritizing prison space for violent offenders, while utilizing community supervision alternatives for non-violent offenders.  These ideas could potentially translate into extraordinary savings because probation and parole cost $1.64 per offender per day — a fraction of the cost of prison, which is $57.14 per day.[3]

The state’s leaders have much work remaining, but they already have some successes in conservative criminal justice reform. One is Arkansas’s network of 39 drug courts, which had 1,664 participants in 2008. Drug courts offer intensive judicial oversight of offenders combined with mandatory treatment and drug testing. Unlike a conventional judge who moves on to the next case after issuing a sentence, a drug court judge regularly conducts hearings with offenders to assess compliance, and if necessary, impose sanctions for failure to comply. At their core, drug courts emphasize the fundamental conservative value of accountability.  Offenders who are willing to be accountable for their actions are given an opportunity to succeed. A study by the Arkansas Department of Community Correction study found a recidivism rate of only 5.7 percent among Arkansas drug court graduates.[4]

[1] National Institute of Corrections, Overview of Arkansas’ Criminal Justice System, http://www.nicic.org/features/statestats/?State=AR#6.

[2] Probation Recidivism FY 2004 through FY 2006, Arkansas Department of Correction, July 2008, http://www.dcc.arkansas.gov/pdfs/Research%20and%20Studies/Probation%20Recidivism%202008%20Report.pdf.

[3] Arkansas Department of Community Correction 2008 Annual Report, http://www.dcc.arkansas.gov/pdfs/publications/ar07_08.pdf.

[4] Arkansas Department of Community Correction Arkansas Drug Courts -Recidivism Rates For Program Graduates Through Fiscal Year 2005, July 2007, http://www.dcc.arkansas.gov/pdfs/Research%20and%20Studies/Drug%20Court%20Recidivism%20Study%20Report%20August%202007.pdf.

• Gov. Beebe and Arkansas Legislature Taking on Recidivism and Prison Growth

  Posted in Arkansas, Priority Issues, Prisons, ROC Blog, State Initiatives: August 31, 2011 by Henry Joel Simmons

  Arkansas’s prison population doubled in the past two decades, and corrections costs have jumped eight hundred percent — now costing the state $353 million per annum, an all-time high. Governor Mike Beebe recently called upon the Pew Center on the States to evaluate the problem and recommend solutions to help the ailing state.

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• Arkansas Enacts “Smart on Crime” Reforms

  Posted in Arkansas, ROC Blog, Uncategorized: April 29, 2011 by Joseph A. Adams

  On March 22, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe enacted significant corrections reform in Arkansas by signing Senate Bill 750—the Public Safety Improvement Act—after it was passed unanimously in the Senate and 79-14 in the House. After initially drawing opposition from prosecutors, the measure won endorsements from…

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• “Support Your Family Five Days a Week, but Give Us the Other Two…”

  Posted in Adult Probation, Arkansas, ROC Blog: February 2, 2011 by Vikrant P. Reddy

  According to The Arkansas News, the Arkansas prison system is bursting at the seams. 14,200 prisoners have been stuffed into state prison facilities that can only accomodate 13,000 — and another 1,600 state prisoners are locked up in county facilities…

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