For the more callous of us, it's a simple matter of cost accounting: This state's prison population is expected to pass the 20,000 mark over the next decade. Which is more than the state's correction system can now hold. Ergo, do We the People go easier on those prisoners who violate the terms of their parole and so ease the pressure on the state's treasury to pay for their upkeep?
That was the standard response earlier in this decade, but then one of the prisoners who'd made a practice of skipping appointments with his parole officer did the all too predictable: He killed a teenager in Little Rock, the epicenter of the state's earthquake of criminal violence. In response, the state chose to lock up more parole violators. And it became clearer than ever who was calling the shots, literally, in this deadly game of Catch Me Before I Kill More--and it wasn't We the People but the killers.
The trend that concerns many of us, or should, is exemplified by this state's Department of Correction, which the other Friday was home to 16,261 inmates, or hundreds more than the system was meant to hold at full capacity. Overcrowding in this state's and country's jails continues to mount.
Benny Magness, chairman of the state's Board of Corrections, has noted that granting more prisoners parole will inevitably lead to more of them violating the terms of their paroles and more local lockups' having to hold them.
So who is responsible for this sad state of affairs? Much as all those immediately and directly concerned may point the finger at each other, in the end it's We the People who are responsible for this cycle of catch and release. Tempting as it always is to deny it, in this state Crimes R Us--and until we are willing to pay more to keep potential killers where they belong, namely under lock and key, nothing will change.
Bobby Glover, vice chairman of the prison board, has called it right: "Our crime [rate] in the state is not improving." And neither are our attempts to keep up with it. The latest report on crime in Arkansas didn't even include an estimate of how many of those convicted of crimes in this state but released will be returning to confinement. At the moment the state is still groping in the dark when it comes to making sensible policy where crime is concerned. As for preventing it, the state is still flying blind--a sure way to invite still more crackups.
Editorial on 09/27/2017