Legislators hear plan to reduce number of inmates who return to prison

To reduce a rising prison recidivism rate, the state of Arkansas should hire more parole officers, create a “pay for success” program where investors receive a return when private providers have higher success rates, and establish re-entry centers for offenders preparing to leave prison.

Those were among a list of 24 recommendations presented to legislators Tuesday (Dec. 2) by the Arkansas Department of Community Correction, the state agency responsible for supervising parolees and offenders on probation.

Sheila Sharp, director, and Kevin Murphy, assistant director, presented the report to a joint meeting of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the House and Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committees. The report was created as a result of Act 1190 of 2013. The known annual cost to implement most of the provisions is about $16.6 million, with the goal being to reduce costly recidivism rates.

Many of the recommendations could be funded using a “pay for success” program that has been done in New Jersey, Massachusetts and the United Kingdom, Murphy said. Private investors can fund programs through social impact bonds, and if recidivism is reduced, the investors receive a return.

“That’s an option for paying for the majority of these recommendations,” Murphy said.

The state will release 10,000 inmates this year, a record amount, and more than half will return to prison in three years, Sharp said. Using traditional measures, the three-year recidivism rate had been 44%, but 57% of them were rearrested. Because of a new policy adopted in 2013 by the Arkansas Parole Board that all reoffenders must go before the board for potential revocations, most of those inmates now go back to prison. Last year, about 4,000 parolees returned to prison, according to Dina Tyler, the department’s public relations director. About three-quarters returned for new offenses, while about a quarter returned for technical violations.

The report recommends hiring 201 additional probation and parole officers over the biennium. Officers should be trained to focus more on re-entry, but to do that, more are needed.

“I can tell you that the majority of the day, they fight fires,” Murphy said.

Murphy said each prisoner should be assigned a discharge plan the day he or she enters the prison system and be case-managed throughout incarceration. More than 80% of prisoners have a drug or alcohol problem, and many have mental health problems, he said.

When prisoners are within 6-9 months of their release, they should be moved to re-entry centers close to the communities where they will be released so employment can be established and families can be reunited. The report recommends 4,000 beds, but Murphy said 2,000-2,500 is more realistic.

Half of the releasees are unemployed in some parts of the state. Murphy said the department is considering starting its own businesses to employ some of them. The report recommends establishing a state tax credit program to incentivize the hiring of offenders after their release.