Gov. Asa Hutchinson inherited a prison overcrowding problem that has perplexed one Arkansas governor after another.
It seems there never is enough room to lock away all the inmates sentenced to the Department of Correction. Blame it on increasing crime rates or stricter sentencing laws or too-tight budgets. There's always a reason.
The reason du jour is the state tried to expand a parole system that experienced a high-profile failure, cooling interest in moving more inmates out of the state's prisons and into the public realm. A parolee took a life, and the public appetite for parole instantly waned.
The issue prompted strong talk of a $100 million prison to house another 1,000 state inmates, despite the fact that Arkansas doesn't have an extra $100 million stashed back.
It wasn't a particularly popular idea. Nonetheless, the state Board of Correction talked it up and even had local communities around the state vying for the jobs that would go along with building and operating yet another prison.
Along comes Hutchinson this week with a plan that does not include the prison but will put $33 million in state reserves toward opening 790 more prison beds. They would be scattered around Arkansas and even in a neighboring Texas county, which would take 288 Arkansas inmates under contract.
The intent is to relieve the backlog of state inmates with a dose of one-time money, even though the costs will continue.
Something like 2,600 state inmates are sitting in county jails awaiting transfer to prison. Some will stay in local lockups but some will go into state custody under the governor's prison plan.
For the record, there are always state inmates backed up into the jails. Counties get reimbursed for holding them but get antsy when the numbers grow too big or state money comes too slowly.
Hutchinson's plan will calm that situation, partly by adding on to existing prisons and by working with counties around the state to create some regional facilities.
There is also money proposed to hire additional parole and probation officers and others, including substance abuse counselors, as well as funding for something he's calling "re-entry" centers to help inmates get jobs and stay out of prison.
The latter effort, of course, is aimed at changing inmates' behavior and ultimately keeping them from returning to prison. That, too, has been a strategy for one governor after another through the years.
As implementing legislation is introduced and debate begins, there will be more explanation of how the Hutchinson plan differs from past efforts.
Taxpayers will like the idea they're not building another big prison. They'll need more details on some of the other elements.
Is it good policy to export Arkansas inmates to Texas, even if the lockup is just across the state line?
And what about these re-entry centers, which would apparently be privately operated? Introducing the profit motive into the prison system hasn't always produced the best outcomes.
So there are a lot of questions to be answered, but this governor, a former prosecutor, is in familiar territory and should know something about judging whether his proposals will make the state any safer. For most of the population, that is the ultimate question and it will remain so.
Fortunately, efforts do continue to develop alternative sentencing and to try to turn around the lives of the people being incarcerated.
There are even some who are trying, so far with little success, to increase the state's investment in early learning, which is thought to improve the odds children will experience lives of opportunity, rather than crime.
But the focus now is on finding somewhere to put those who have gone down a wrong path and are stacked up in county jails.
Hutchinson's plan seems certain to gain more favor with lawmakers than the idea of a costly new prison.
But, like any proposal, this one hasn't yet had the kind of scrutiny it needs before the Legislature will lock into its implementation.
Brenda Blagg is a freelance columnist and longtime journalist in Northwest Arkansas. Email her at [email protected].
Commentary on 02/25/2015