LITTLE ROCK – The inmate population in Arkansas prisons will grow by an estimated two percent a year until 2035, according to an expert’s presentation at a conference of county officials, sheriffs, prison administrators and lawmakers.
There is general agreement that Arkansas needs to add prison space in order to relieve overcrowding in county jails and provide a deterrent to violent offenders. Some elected officials want to build a large, new prison unit while others prefer to expand existing units.
The inmate population grew by 2.4 percent a year from 2010 through 2023, but since 2021 it has grown by an average of 5 percent a year, the expert said. There are now more than 19,400 inmates under state jurisdiction. Those estimates prompted one legislator to call the situation “very alarming.”
Sheriffs are in charge of county jails. Some are full because they house inmates waiting to be transferred to a state prison unit. This creates dangerous interactions if serious offenders are in the same facility with people who commit minor offenses. In some county jails an offender guilty of a misdemeanor may not have to serve time behind bars due to lack of safe space.
Counties have approved local taxes to build more jail space. Since 2021 county jails have added more than 3,000 beds. However, one sheriff told the group that jails were bursting at the seams because of a backlog of about 1,900 state inmates.
Since 2023 the Correction Department has added about 1,400 beds to the state system, according to the head of the department.
One reason the inmate population is growing is that tougher new laws require more serious offenders to serve at least 70 percent of their sentence. Another law passed in 2023 requires the most serious offenders to serve 100 percent of their sentence.
Criminals convicted of rape and capital murder serve 100 percent of their sentences, as do inmates convicted of aggravated robbery, human trafficking, Internet stalking of a child and more serious categories of aggravated residential burglary.
Inmates must serve 85 percent of their sentence after conviction for violent felonies such as second degree murder, negligent homicide, manslaughter, encouraging someone to commit suicide, first degree battery, first degree sexual assault and sexual indecency with a child.
Other felonies on the list include permitting abuse of a minor, serious categories of arson, advocating overthrow of the government, treason, making a terrorist threat, arming a terrorist and exposing the public to toxic, chemical or radioactive substances.
Thanks to the 2023 law, sentencing guidelines more closely mirror those in federal prisons, where inmates generally serve most of their original sentences.
Many county jails are not built to segregate all prisoners, so the presence of violent offenders is potentially dangerous to other inmates and to staff. Another challenge for local jails is the high percentage of people with mental illness who are incarcerated.
The legislature approved Act 733 earlier this year to streamline the process of ordering psychological evaluations for people who have been charged with crimes. It also allows jails to provide medications in a more timely manner, to prevent people from spiraling into a mental health crisis.
Weekly Updates