![]() 12-27-103, which established the Division of Correction. Profiri takes the position that bed space falls exclusively under his and the Division of Corrections’ power, citing A.C.A. 12-27-105), the Corrections Board is charged with managing the state’s correctional resources and is given “general supervisory power and control over the Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction and shall perform all functions with respect to the management and control of the adult correctional institutions and community correction options of this state contemplated by Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 33.” In addition to the Board of Corrections, the amendments gave additional independence to governing boards of Arkansas’ colleges and universities as well as the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Highway Commission. Arkansas Department of Corrections Board Chairman Benny Magness (Courtesy photo) 20 letter to Sanders, the amendment was the first of a series of amendments passed by the people of Arkansas in the mid-20th century to protect certain government boards and agencies from political influence and decentralize the executive branch’s power. As Corrections Board Chairman Benny Magness laid out in a Nov. The board has gone through several names and iterations over the years, but it was cemented into the Arkansas Constitution in 1942 when voters ratified Amendment 33. There have been past policy disagreements between executive branch officials and the Board of Corrections, but the board has always been regarded as the prison system’s oversight body with broad authority. The unprecedented move has the potential to put the pillars of Arkansas’ criminal justice system on a constitutional collision course. Additionally, there were 1,895 inmates backed up in county jails awaiting state prison beds. ![]() Profiri’s plan to add the temporary beds is a solution to take some of the strain off county jails in the short term, but it won’t relieve all of the strain.Īs of a month ago, there were 16,292 inmates in state prisons, which are rated to house up to 15,022 inmates, or at roughly 108% of capacity. ![]() Sanders has set aside money to build a new prison and add more than 3,000 new beds to the state’s capacity, but that will take several years to complete. Sarah Huckabee Sanders took a hard-line stance on criminal justice and made it one of her priorities.Īt her urging, the Arkansas Legislature passed a comprehensive “truth-in-sentencing” law overhauling Arkansas’ parole system and sentencing guidelines.Īs that law is implemented over the next few years, more inmates will be heading into state custody for longer sentences in Arkansas’ already-overcrowded prisons.Ĭounty officials have also grown frustrated with the number of state inmates being held in county jails because there isn’t room for them in state prisons. Why has prison space become such a hot-button issue? “The Board of Corrections had plenty of time to do the right thing but chose not to act, so the Governor and Secretary, who has the authority to open certain bed space, are going to do everything in their power to keep Arkansans safe.” “Governor Sanders rejects the failed policy of catch and early release of violent offenders from prison for no reason other than lack of prison space,” Sanders’ Communications Director Alexa Henning said. Sanders, though, has cast the board’s reluctance as obstructionist and pledged to move full-steam ahead in the name of public safety. The corrections board in recent weeks signed off on adding 254 beds in existing spaces across three prisons, but the board has been reluctant to grant Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri’s request to add 244 beds in a vacant building at the McPherson Unit, a women’s prison near Newport, and 124 beds at the Re-Entry Center in the Maximum Security Unit near Pine Bluff.īoard members cited a number of concerns with the expansions, but they’ve chiefly worried about whether the chronically understaffed prison system has enough manpower to safely supervise hundreds of additional inmates. Such limits have been pushed before but never to the point that the Arkansas Supreme Court has had the final word on constitutional provisions enacted by the people more than eight decades ago. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her corrections secretary tests the limits of executive power and the authority of state boards and commissions that are written into the state Constitution. The escalation of the dispute between the Arkansas Board of Corrections and Gov. Arkansas prison officials, in defiance of a state oversight board, will proceed with adding more than 600 temporary beds for inmates in existing facilities across the state’s prison system.
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