Arkansas is known for many great things. Namely the Arkansas River, which is a source for some of the nation's best fishing. Surely the birth home of former President Bill Clinton, rhythm and blues singer Neo, and the late, great Johnny Cash couldn't be a bad place! Right?
Well, one fact that Arkansans may not be too proud of is that, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in 2013 Arkansas had a 17 percent growth in male prisoners and a whopping 26 percent in females. With those stats, it's safe to say that the Natural State has engaged in some intense jailing over the years.
National studies show that a major contributor to incarceration rates for nonviolent offenders in Arkansas, and all over the country, are the mandatory-sentencing guidelines set forth during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The problem is that now, 20 years later, evidence supported by BJS research show mandatory sentencing guidelines do not fulfill the initial goal of preventing judicial discrimination.
Extreme mandatory-sentencing laws have many unintended consequences, such as leaving about 1.7 million minor children without a parent. To date, mandatory sentencing has not increased community safety, has not ensured fair and impartial justice, yet has depleted billions of tax dollars, and torn families apart. To think, nearly half of all prisoners are incarcerated because of nonviolent drug offenses carrying mandatory minimums.
While there may not be a magic pill, pun intended, to fix the national epidemic of mass incarceration, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act offers a mixed bag of solutions for such an intricate sack of problems.
One of the many reasons Arkansans should lobby their federal delegation to vote yes for the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is because it offers a plan of rehabilitation in the form of job training, counseling, education, and drug-recovery services for nonviolent prisoners with good behavior. As a bonus, if the inmates successfully complete these programs, they may earn the opportunity to complete their sentence in a recovery house or with their families on probation. There are no handouts with this policy.
Current programs around the U.S. like the ones outlined in the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act that provide rehabilitative programs and job training to drug users and dealers are 75 percent more effective in reducing the number of people who return to prison than leaving them on the yard to do their time with no skills-training provided. The latter alternative is a gross misuse of American tax dollars. With the United States spending roughly $80 billion annually to provide for all costs associated with prisons and inmates, using the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act as a vehicle to reduce mandatory minimum sentences will curve the financial burden inmates pose on the nation.
Sadly, the most critical opposition to sentencing reform comes from Arkansas' very own U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, who prides himself in taking a tough stance on crime.
Americans for Limited Government and Tom Cotton vehemently oppose this bill because they fear the release of thousands of criminals. Yet, the BJS reports that in 2013 over 10,000 so-called criminals were released in Arkansas, and nearly a half-million nationwide. Surely a few of those nationally released prisoners have traveled to the Natural State to enjoy some of that good Arkansas River fishing sans the doom and gloom of rape and murder that Tom Cotton and other naysayers insinuate in their fright propaganda.
Most Arkansans would agree that dehumanizing people who've made poor choices by merely viewing them as criminals, locking them up, and throwing away the key is not a good basis for bragging rights. U.S. citizens can demand change for a broken system and legislators can redeem past wrongs by reuniting families and increasing the chances of success for a vulnerable population.
Passing the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is an effective means to halt the mass-incarceration phenomenon and truly make America a nation of redeemers ... again!
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Quenette Freeman of Jacksonville is studying for a master's degree at the University of Southern California. Fellow USC student Brittany Brothers assisted with research.
Editorial on 08/15/2016