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| Officials Laud New Prison Legislation |
| By swtimes.com |
| Published: 04/18/2011 |
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LITTLE ROCK - Curbing the state's rapid prison growth likely will take years under reforms enacted by the Legislature this year, but officials say the new law provides for immediate steps toward easing chronic prison overcrowding. Act 570 of 2011 takes effect Aug. 1, authorizing revisions in sentencing guidelines, the hiring of new probation officers and implementation of programs aimed at slowing the revolving door of prisoners leaving and returning to prison. "I think it's a good piece of legislation," state Prison Director David Eberhard said in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau. "I think it does strengthen probation and parole. It enforces some of the things we've been already doing, like with regard to evidenced-based practices." Arkansas' burgeoning prison population has doubled in the past 20 years to more than 16,000, and housing ever more inmates could cost the state $1.1 billion over the next decade, according to a 2010 study by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance project. The study projects new guidelines could save the state about $875 million over the same period. The new law provides for lesser sentences for some non-violent and mostly drug-related crimes. For example, the law will lower the penalty for someone caught with less than 2 grams of methamphetamine to a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. A person caught with more than 2 grams of methamphetamine could still be charged with a Class Y felony, punishable by up to 40 years or life in prison, but a jury also will have the option of convicting the person of a Class A felony, punishable by six to 30 years in prison and up to a $15,000 fine. The law also makes some nonviolent offenders eligible for parole earlier, with electronic monitoring as a condition of early release in some cases. It also provides for less severe punishment for some parolees who fail to report to a parole officer or fail a drug test. Those offenders could serve up to seven consecutive days in jail rather than being sent back to prison to serve the remainder of their full sentences. The new law is expected to cost about $9 million to implement by adding more probation and parole officers and expanding drug rehabilitation programs. Part of the funding, nearly $3 million, will come from a $10 hike - from $25 to $35 - in the monthly fee offenders on parole, probation or in alternative sentencing programs pay. The Department of Community Correction currently has about 360 probation and parole officers handling an average of 110 cases each, Eberhard said. The additional funding will allow the department to add 49 probation and parole officers by July 1 to supervise offenders, meet with them regularly and go to their homes and places of employment to make sure they are staying out of trouble. The department also will hire 21 new employees at the state's five community correction centers. Those residential services officers will work at the minimum security residential treatment centers and help offenders in a variety of ways, including behavior modification. The new law also: ◗ Allows probationers and parolees to earn credits toward early release from supervision. ◗ Requires additional reporting about compliance with sentencing guidelines. ◗ Requires an assessment of risk and needs for every person applying for parole, and supervision plans for probationers and parolees based on the individuals risk to reoffend. The new law encourages smaller communities encouraged to start programs designed to reduce crime and recidivism, such as alcohol or substance abuse programs, GED study courses, classes to help offenders get and keep jobs, and other such programs now in operation in many of the larger cities across the state, DCC spokeswoman Rhonda Sharp said. "This is new territory," Gov. Mike Beebe said after signing the bill into law last month. Eberhard and Beebe both said that the new sentencing, probation and parole guidelines will not solve the state's growing prison population problem, but it will curb the growth, and it will open up prison beds and postpone the need for additional prisons. "We will continue to have prison growth," Beebe said. "It's not going to go away ... there will still be growth, but I hope it's more manageable." "What people have to remember is there is still an anticipation that there is going to have to be additional prison beds, but (Act 570) its going to reduce the number that there would have had to have been," Eberhard said. Within a few years, he said, prison, along with probation and parole officials, should begin to see a drop in the recidivism rate. That will be a major bench mark because a new study by the Pew Center on States found that more than 44 percent of Arkansas prison inmates released in 2004 went back to prison within three years, giving the state one of the highest recidivism rates in the nation. "By the fourth year we should see that the numbers are starting to go down for recidivism," he said. Read More. |
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