Panel petitions for parolee’s file

For 15 years, parolees’ personal files have remained confidential under Arkansas law.

The Legislature’s Joint Performance Review Committee - which oversees and sometimes investigates state agencies - assumed that its members would have access to those records.

But that was not the case.

The situation led the committee to file a joint petition with the Department of Community Correction this week asking a circuit judge to order the department to release the parole records of Darrell Dennis, an eight-time absconder who remained free despite an accumulation of at least 10 felony charges since his release from prison in 2008.

It also includes a request for a protective order, which would stipulate that the contents of Dennis’ file will be viewed only by committee members.

Dennis is charged in the May kidnapping and killing of 18-year-old Forrest Abrams of Little Rock. After the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published articles about Dennis’ criminal history, legislators on the review committee began scrutinizing the Department of Community Correction.

In a letter dated June 20, the review committee asked Director David Eberhard to release emails and any other internal memorandums or records pertaining to Dennis’ supervision. The committee also requested Dennis’ personal file, which details his parole history.

Eberhard - who retired June 1 - wrote back at the time, saying the Community Correction Department couldn’t release the file.

He cited Arkansas law, which states: “[The Department of Community Correction] shall maintain a full and complete record of each offender under its supervision. To protect the integrity of a record … and to ensure its proper use, it is unlawful to permit inspection of or disclose information contained in a record … or to copy or issue a copy of any part of the record except as authorized by administrative regulation or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction.”

The committee then sent another letter in which it noted that the Department of Community Correction’s own administrative regulations include a provision that states: “To maintain agency integrity and credibility, requests for information from legislative or other agency executive representatives should be answered fully and promptly.”

Despite this provision, Department of Community Correction officials contended that state law trumps agency regulations.

After attorneys from both sides conferred, committee members and community correction officials decided that filing a joint petition in court was the best way to give lawmakers access to Dennis’ parole file.

It’s an unusual and frustrating situation, state Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, acknowledged, adding that lawmakers should overhaul the law when they reconvene.

“That policy that [the department] is utilizing has long been cited when reporters and legislators have asked about specifics in parole cases,” Sanders said.

In essence, the law has given the Department of Community Correction sole guardianship of its parolees’ records, he explained.

“To me, that’s extremely problematic,” Sanders added. “The whole system has been devoid of accountability and oversight.”

In researching the law, which was passed in 1997, Sanders said, he was told that it was designed to keep parolees from repeatedly asking for copies of their files. Interim Community Correction Department Director Sheila Sharp confirmed this, noting the amount of time and money involved in copying thousands of files for thousands of parolees back in 1997.

The result, however, is that no one other than the Department of Community Correction staff has access to files that may indicate potential flaws within the parole system, lawmakers said Tuesday.

“The law that is in place now, to shield these parole records from public inspection - that law has done a great disservice to the people of Arkansas,” Sanders said. “We lawmakers have to be able to do our job. We can’t enter a protective order every time.”

State Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, co-chairman of the committee, concurred, saying, “It’s probably going to mean changing the law.”

Both senators said they would be willing to consider revamping the law so that parole records are open to public inspection. Currently, there is no provision in the state’s Freedom of Information Act that allows access to parolees’ files.

If there were such a provision, English noted, lawmakers on the committee would have used a Freedom of Information request to obtain Dennis’ file.

Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, who also serves on the Joint Performance Review Committee as a co-chairman, said a joint petition seemed like the only option.

“I sure don’t fault DCC for wanting to cover themselves,” he added, noting concerns that the agency might be sued if it released the records without a court order.

“The other thing that I’m sensitive to - and the other co-chair is, and the committee, too - we don’t want to do anything that endangers any pending case, so that too is a consideration.”

Rice and English said the Department of Community Correction has been cooperative, especially by agreeing to take the matter to court.

If a judge agrees to issue an order, Dennis’ records would be viewed only by members of the review committee, the Bureau of Legislative Research - whose attorneys represent the committee - and the Department of Community Correction and its attorneys.

The petition also stipulates that members of the committee will be allowed to discuss the contents of Dennis’ file at public meetings. They also may read aloud from the file. If lawmakers are given copies of the file at a meeting, however, they must return them to the bureau when they adjourn.

If a judge issues the protective order, a copy of Dennis’ parole file will be kept at the Bureau of Legislative Research for 120 days. After that, it must either be returned to the Department of Community Correction or be destroyed.