One reason Arkansas' prison system is so crowded and more than 2,500 state inmates are in county jails can is so many keep coming back for more punishment.
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, then they go 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 five-year sentence on, for example, five burglaries, may sound like a 25-year sentence. But if concurrent, that's really a five-year sentence.
After serving some time, generally about one-sixth of the sentence under good behavior rules, a state inmate is released. 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.
Implementing all 24 recommendations in the study would cost an estimated $16.6 million in the first year.
Perhaps the most important (and most expensive) recommendation is the hiring of an additional 201 probation and parole officers across the state during the next four to five years. 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.
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 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 Department of Correction.
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 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 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.
Commentary on 12/16/2014