PINE BLUFF -- At a public meeting tonight, Pine Bluff city leaders will hear from residents about a program that proposes to put paroled inmates to work around the community tearing down derelict houses.

The Arkansas Department of Community Correction-sponsored collaboration, dubbed the Pine Bluff Housing and Community Re-invigoration Program, has been debated by the Pine Bluff City Council and many residents over the past two weeks.

The City Council had been scheduled to vote on a resolution regarding the program at its Aug. 18 meeting, but aldermen decided to wait and study it further before taking action.

Tonight's meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers at City Hall.

The Community Correction Department has received an $830,000 grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission for the three-year project, which would allow up to 40 inmates a chance to learn job skills and help them prepare for life outside prison walls, said Kevin Murphy, assistant director of re-entry and volunteer services at the Community Correction Department.

The program would target inmates most likely to re-offend, Murphy said.

They would be housed at four heavily supervised duplexes next to the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center in Pine Bluff. Murphy said the inmates would all be from Jefferson County and would be released back into society once they complete the program.

Inmates would be accepted into the program in groups of 10 for six months at a time, he said. The laborers would work primarily on the demolition of houses in the city, not other kinds of buildings, Murphy said.

In addition, 10 former inmates who are already paroled and living in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County would be paid to work as part of the program. Those living at the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center would not receive payment for their labor.

There are 600 houses on the city's demolition list, a number that officials say could take years to remove without some help. And while most Pine Bluff aldermen are in agreement that the Community Correction Department's program could benefit the city, some say it was thrust upon them too quickly.

Alderman Glen Brown said he would have liked advance notice so that he could have informed crime watch associations within his ward, adding that "we have to speak with these organizations more frequently and keep them informed about what's going on in the city."

Crime watch organizer Sally Kinard said she had no idea about the proposal until she heard about it through social media. Kinard said she is nervous about the idea of having parolees so close to her home, even if they are supervised.

"You know, it's just the idea of thinking someone could get a notion to rob my house or harm me and my family," Kinard said. "It will take some thinking before I decide if this is the right thing or not."

Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth has urged aldermen to accept the program, calling it "a gift to the city."

At the Aug. 18 City Council meeting, the mayor described to aldermen a trip she took around town to view some of the properties on the demolition list.

"I saw children out playing in these lots and in these dilapidated, burned-out structures," the mayor said. "That is the new normal for these kids. I'm sorry, but as a city we haven't done a very good job."

State Desk on 08/25/2014