Arkansas has passed Governor Beebe’s “Commit the Crime, Pay No Time” bill. This is designed to address the growing prison population over the next ten years. It is hoped to save the state upwards of $800 million over ten years. Unfortunately it isn’t designed to provide any additional protection for the citizens from the additional 6,888 ‘non-violent’ criminals that the bill hopes to turn back onto the highways and byways of the state, not to mention the influx of additional ‘non-violent’ criminals from other states when they learn that in Arkansas, commit the crime and you don’t go to prison.
Per the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, here are the reported ‘fuzzy’ stats per the Pew Center of Washington, D.C. (There is no proof that the first name is ‘Pepe’, and the second ‘Le’ for the Pew Center). By the way, if the numbers change, don’t worry, we’re not supposed to understand this stuff, only politicians can comprehend them.
1. Current prison population is 16,018 with 1,617 of those housed in county jails, as of 3/8/2011 Ark Dem Gaz reporting.
2. Arkansas has 428 new prison ‘beds’ available but no staff to allow them to be used.
3. Arkansas has another 294 beds coming online in January 2012, also lacking staff to allow them to be used. A total of 722 prison beds lacking staff.
4. Governor Beebe declined to approve any funding for staff to employ these empty beds.
5. The Pew Center of Washington D.C. estimates that unaddressed the prison population will increase 43% over the next 10 years. That computes, using par #1 figures, to 6,888 more inmates totaling 22,906. However the Ark. Dem. Gaz reported 3/21/2011 that the growth target would only be 21,767 inmates versus the earlier 22,906 computation, despite using the same 43% growth figure.
6. Le Pew Center estimated that would cost the state an additional $1.1 Billion over the next 10 years.
7. Adopting the Le Pew Center reform recommendations of not incarcerating “non-violent” criminals would save $875 Million over that same time span. (Somehow we will be able to incarcerate an additional 2,547 inmates but not need to spend money on more beds. I know, it doesn’t make any sense, but see par # 9).
8. The state will handle these additional 6,888 “non-violent” criminals by drug courts, treatment and monitoring. In fact $9 million was appropriated for the first year to set up these new government entities and add parole officers.
9. But then on 3/21/2011 it was stated that the prison growth won’t stop, just slow down to 18,565 in ten years, only 2,547 more inmates; a savings of either 4,341 or 3,202 beds depending on which reported figure one cares to use. (How do we house these additional 2,547 inmates since The Guv has denied Corrections request for funds to build new prison beds?)
10. To complicate all even more, Dept of Corrections Director Ray Hobbs said “will open up about 9,000 prison beds in the next ten years.” So how many ‘non-violent criminals’ will The Beebe flood onto our streets? Well it appears to be somewhere between 3,202 and 9,000. A large number in any case.
11. Arkansas, per Le Pew Center, has caused this problem by: ”long sentences for non-violent offender” (criminal), too little use of probation (we’ll return to that in a moment), and (too little use of) alternative punishments (sorry not a clue what this means), “and delay in transfers to parole status. The states prison population doubled in the past 20 years.”
12. “On Friday (3/18/2011) 16,079 people were in the Arkansas prison system, including 1,528 being held in county jails because there is not enough space in state-owned prisons.” See par #3, 722 beds available if staffed.
13. “An additional 54,073 people were on parole or probation.”
a. “Per a 2006 Dept of Corrections Study, 40 % of offenders released on parole return to prison within three years.”
b. “Nearly a third of these for new crimes.” Computation 40% of 54,073 times 33% equates to 7,138 new crimes by paroles.
c. Oh, by the way over the last 10 years the average return rate isn’t 40%, it’s been 47.5 %.
14. Community Correction Department Director David Eberhard states that “department has 362 probation and parole officers handling an average of 110 cases each”. (Sorry to interject this but 54,073 paroles/probationers divided among 362 officers equates to a case load of 150 per officer. Perhaps the missing 40 cases per officer, about 37%, has some bearing on the 40% recidivism rate.)
15. Not to fear, the department will hire an additional 49 officers to drop the case load “to about 85 cases per officer.” (Again apologies but 54,073 divided by 362 plus 49 more, totaling 411 parole officers computes to a caseload of 132 per officer. I’m certain that I’m missing something, or the department head has a math problem.)
16. To further protect you, the innocent citizen, the bill requires that the Parole Board “assess a person’s likelihood of committing more crimes and the reason he committed a crime in the first place.” (Pardon me, but what criteria have they been using up to now, if not assessing the criminal’s likelihood to commit more crimes?)
17. This new law requires the Parole Board to submit a monthly report to the ‘High Moguls’ to include how many were denied parole, the reason for denial, and “assessment of how much of a chance there is that the person would break the law again.” (Folks, you just can’t make this stuff up. What’s the likelihood of breaking the law again? How about 47%, the last 10 years recidivism average as a starter.) Notice that we aren’t asking how many they actually paroled, just pressing them on the number of poor suckers they denied the opportunity to get back out on the streets and renew their professional career.
18. This should bring comfort to you. “Creates a pilot program to provide immediate penalties for probationers at high risk of re-offending (47%?) who violate their parole.” (Does that infer that the current practice is ‘non-immediate’ penalties? Like we’ll do something about you breaking your parole when we get around to it? Meanwhile please promise to not do it again?)
19. The bill also addressed specific penalties for specific crime types. For example it decreased the penalty for “theft of live stock” (cattle rustlin' and horse thievin'), and “theft during a state of emergency” (looting). Sad, but gone are the days of frontier justice; where are Judge Parker and ‘Rooster Cogburn’?
20. It is great relief to learn that many of our ‘High Moguls’ will be Keeping Tabs on all of this. The Beebe states, “There’s certainly going to be gubernatorial administration oversight.” (Read that as his assistant’s part time clerk will keep tabs). State Senator David Sanders also states, “There will be oversight, I’m certainly going to be watching it.” (I certainly feel better knowing that). Corrections Department spokesperson Dina Tyler assures us that they won’t “fling the doors (prison’s I assume) open. This is going to affect crimes that haven’t taken place yet.” (Now I’m really feeling warm and comfy).
21. To ensure that crime statistics don’t soar as a result of these changes, the bill offers a bribe to all of the state’s cities, counties, and judicial districts.
a. “The bill creates a grant program for additional money from the state for finding ways to reduce the number of people who return to prison without the crime rate increasing.”
b. “If you can reduce your burden on the Department of Corrections without increasing your felony conviction rate, then you’ll get the funding the next year.”
c. “You won’t be funded the next year if you have one more felony conviction than you had at your base line.” This per Williams, the House member from Little Rock. (Base line = 2009, reset every 3 years).
d. “None of the money will go to prosecutors.” (Oh heck.)
e. It is hoped that the judicial districts will use the money to set up programs to address recidivism and drug abuse.
22. Of course you can address the rate of crimes reported and persons sent to prison in other ways:
a. Institute a western frontier “Dead or Alive” policy, but of course the ACLU will haul you into court on a daily basis.
b. Instruct law enforcement to transport all arrested persons across the county line and call the other county's sheriff to come and get the ‘perp’ that you were so kind and gracious to arrest on his jurisdictional soil for him.
c. Wait, what about plea bargains? Take a rape down to "he said, she said"; armed robbery to "failure to pay for a loan"; carjacking to "joyriding". I see a real opportunity here to keep our numbers down to ensure that our bribe, er, grant keeps flowing
d. State Representative Linda Collins-Smith, Pocahontas, said “the performance-based funding seems to the people that you’re rewarding the communities for not arresting criminals”. She’s pretty darned perceptive.
Very little, nothing in fact, was reported as to additional safe keeping plans, if any, for the state’s populace. We all want our governments to become as efficient and cost effective as possible, but turning up to 9,000 criminals loose on our streets may not be the way most of us would desire to achieve this laudable goal. More car thefts, breaking and entering, shoplifting, and other petty crimes pushes the costs not paid for incarceration onto the backs of the poor citizen victim.
The state of Arkansas spends somewhere between $30 million and $50 million for vehicles per year. Close scrutiny of their uses, need, and justification might produce a significant savings that could be used for either more prison beds or more police to protect us from the anticipated growing herd of criminals to be thrown onto our streets.(Italics are quotes from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Bold type and parentheses are all the blogger's peculiar work.)
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