Study offers suggestions to keep prison inmates from returning
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Dec. 16, 2014
One of the main reasons Arkansas’ prison system is so crowded that more than 2,500 state inmates are being held in county jails can be blamed on the fact that so many keep coming back for more punishment.
Consider first that most first offenders, either because they break the law as juveniles or their first crimes aren’t serious ones, don’t go to prison. They get probation. Too often that doesn’t keep them from offending again and then going to prison.
Keep in mind, too, that frequently a person is sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to more than one crime — say, a string of burglaries — and that often he or she gets a minimum sentence on each but with all to run concurrently, or at the same time. So getting a 5-year sentence on, for example, five burglaries, may sound like a 25-year sentence. But if concurrent, that’s really a 5-year sentence.
After serving some time, generally about one-sixth of the sentence under good behavior rules, a state inmate is released. By that time the state has given him several chances to straighten up. However, state Department of Correction numbers show that 42.2 percent of them will return to prison within three years.
Cutting that recidivism rate can help ease prison crowding, which is why the Legislature in 2013 passed a law directing the Department of Community Correction to study measures that could reduce the rate. A 69-page report was released in late September and is under review by lawmakers.
Their first problem is that to implement all 24 recommendations in the study would cost an estimated $16.6 million in the first year.
Perhaps the most important (and most expensive) of the recommendations is the hiring of an additional 201 probation and parole officers across the state during the next four to five years. That’s essential because the Legislature has already required changes on the parole system to deal with former inmates who don’t live up to the requirements of their release.
Each parole officer now handles about 130 cases, which is unworkable, and the study recommends bringing the average caseload down to 60 per officer so each can do a more effective job of supervising offenders, with special emphasis on those tagged as high risks.
That would cost an estimated $4.1 million the first year, $5.6 million the second year, continuing expenses unless the program is dramatically successful.
Another key recommendation is the establishment of several re-entry centers around the state.
According to the report, the average stay of a state inmate in 2013 was three years, 11 months. Each month the state Parole Board releases 600 to 700 inmates. This proposal would send an inmate to a re-entry center for the last six months of his incarceration, during which time training in life skills and handling finances would point him toward gaining and maintaining employment after release.
Housing up to 4,000 inmates in these centers would cost an average of $30.62 a day per inmate, roughly half of the cost in the ADC.
This could be done in lieu of building a new prison, which would cost at least $75 million, and could relieve the backlog of state inmates in county jails.
The study also recommends establishing an online re-entry portal that can help identify community resources available and needed by a newly released inmate.
To illustrate, the study quotes the dilemma of one former inmate: “I just came out of prison and I have two children. My husband isn’t paying anything and he’s supposed to! Our baby has autism and I have no insurance. I haven't got a second job. Even if I find one, I have the kids and I don’t know how I’ll pay for child care. I barely have money for food and rent. What I do have runs out in the first two weeks and I have to depend on loans from my friends and relatives — it’s stressful.”
Generally, support for an inmate focuses more narrowly, such as on education, which would not be enough to help this woman. Instead, an online portal could provide information about a wide range of services available in her community.
Other significant recommendations in the study include these:
• Establishing a procedure so that all prison inmates can obtain proper identification. One of the problems a newly released inmate may face is the lack of a valid ID card; many have holds on receiving new cards because of the type of crime(s) committed.
• Establishing a statewide mentoring program to assist offenders before and after release from prison.
• Establishing community-based organizations to help guide offenders through the transition period after release and to provide resources for employment, housing, substance abuse treatment, etc., until an offender becomes a contributing member of the organization and community. This would require the hiring of 13 CBO coordinators, to be located in the area parole offices.
• Providing additional funding for 28 staff members to treat inmates with substance abuse and mental health problems so they’ll be better prepared to cope with release.
• Implementing a state tax credit to encourage private employers to hire former inmates.
Legislators are also considering a proposal from a private prison operator to house low-risk inmates in out-of-state facilities. Such facilities offer little to reduce recidivism. In fact, since their profits depend on keeping their beds full, that’s not considered a problem. But those inmates usually come back to Arkansas, sooner or later.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.