Prison reform piece passes House committee

Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]

A measure to ease Arkansas’ prison overcrowding passed a House committee on Wednesday — a precursor to a larger debate regarding pressure on the state’s criminal justice system.

HB 1353 by Rep. Linda Tyler (D-Conway) gives the Arkansas’ Department of Corrections (DOC) the authority to negotiate with political subdivisions of other states. The DOC can already negotiate with other states, but is limited in its ability to contract with counties, parishes or cities in other states.

The bill’s practical purpose is aimed at allowing Arkansas to contract with Louisiana parishes to place Arkansas criminals nearing their parole periods in those out-of-state facilities.

Dina Tyler, a senior official with the DOC, told members of the House State Agencies Committee that Louisiana may be able to house Arkansas prisoners for as little as $28 a day, although the cost could rise under certain negotiating variables.

Tyler explained that the prisoners the state might transfer to Louisiana would be "lower security inmates" who are nearing their exit from Arkansas’ prison system. Those prisoners no longer require "programming," which Tyler explained includes obtaining GEDs, vo-tech skills or parenting and anger management counseling.

Because of the lower threat of security, those prisoners require lower staffing levels than maximum security facilities, so the Louisiana local jails could make more financial sense.

The other factor helping qualify Louisiana prisons as a potential bargain also include the fact that Arkansas — with it’s current overcrowding situation — wouldn’t have to build a new lower-security facility, an option that Tyler said could cost around $50 million.

Under questioning, the DOC’s Tyler conceded that negotiations for deploying prisoners to Louisiana "could reach a point where it’s not a good deal." She cited additional costs that might have to be included above the $28 a day boarding expenses, such as medical costs, which Tyler said cost Arkansas’ prison system $300 per prisoner, or $53 million a year.

The DOC claims it is pushing its limits with prison space. Roughly 1,700 prisoners more than preferred are sitting in state prisons and county jails that could be transferred to Louisiana to ease overcrowding.

Tyler suggested that with additional sentencing reform, the use of Louisiana prisons for space is expected to be temporary. Some parishes in northern Louisiana have constructed new prisons in recent years and have available bed space.

HB 1353 passed out of committee on a unanimous vote. Although it is not part of a forthcoming bill for a major overhaul of the state’s criminal justice system, it is a piece of the puzzle, say administration officials.

Legislators are reviewing a draft of a bill that is part of Gov. Mike Beebe’s legislative package. It has yet to be filed, but the measure tops 160 pages. It seeks to reform sentencing guidelines and alters the parole and probation process in an effort to free up bed space for violent offenders and to possibly save the state money as much as $1.1 billion in the long-run.

Lawmakers are scheduled to meet in smaller private groups today and tomorrow in advance of the bill’s filing for presentations on the major reform bill and to address concerns raised by legislators, prosecutors and the Attorney General’s office.