Our View

Our View

Long-term solution to state’s prison problems still elude lawmakers

No matter how state lawmakers and bureaucrats have sliced it, diced it, or addressed it, there seems to be no getting around the fact that regardless of what has been discussed, planned and implemented our prison system is busting at the seams.

Based on an annual report tracking prison population growth that was recently presented to the state Board of Corrections, Arkansas’ prison population is expected to surpass 20,000 inmates in the next decade–thousands more than the system now can hold.

For example, current figures show the Department of Corrections has 16,261 inmates. That is beyond the system’s designed capacity of 15,300.

Two years ago, a projection by the same researchers said the state’s prisons could swell beyond 25,000.

Lawmakers and prison officials have struggled with this problem for years now. In fact, after the Legislature adopted more lenient punishments for parole violators and absconders in 2011, the number of prisoners dropped. Then, in 2013, a serial absconder killed a Fayetteville teenager in Little Rock and lawmakers again moved to lock up more parole violators. As expended, the prison population went upwards to the levels we are now experiencing.

Another thing corrections officials did was contract with county jails to hold state inmates, which also carrying out regular early releases to free up bed space.

Then, earlier this year, lawmakers passed legislation to divert more low-level parole and probation violators to short-term stays at alternative correctional centers, rather than revoking them to prison.

All these steps to deal with this overcrowding issue were specifically designed to avert having to come up with millions upon millions of tax dollars to build, equip and staff a new prison that Gov. Asa Hutchinson opposes.

We’re told the overall population of Arkansas is expected to grow around 0.6 percent a year. It is the believe that the state should strive to match its growth in incerceration to the overall rise in people living in Arkansas.

Attaining that goal could be done by offering more re-entry programs for inmates, hiring more probation and parole officers as well as other changes beyond the scope of the corrections system. All this boils down to is the state will have to spend more of our tax dollars to deal with the situation.

While lawmakers have declined to act on previous requests to provide funding for more prison beds during this year’s legislative session the fact of the matter is that sooner-or-later the time will come when there will be no way around the problem but to build more prison space.

That brings about the problem for lawmakers as to just where will all this money come from.

Up to this point, lawmakers and Hutchinson have simply been kicking the can down the road in hopes of what they have implemented will solve the problem, which has proven to be fruitless. As we are experiencing, this annoying problem isn’t going away.