Arkansas Times l Lindsey Millar
A coalition of groups advocating for criminal justice reform in Arkansas put out statements this week calling for Governor Sarah Sanders and legislative leaders not to build more prisons as they’ve promised to do.
The groups, led by DecARcerate and Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition, are all progressive or nonpartisan. It will be interesting to see where conservative advocates land on the coming “truth in sentencing” legislation, which promises to keep more people in prison for longer. In the last decade, many conservatives have embraced justice reform. The American Legislative Exchange Council, the powerful Koch-funded advocacy group, has often been a strong voice against mass incarceration, including in Arkansas.
Governor Sanders’ focus on prison expansion threatens the very core of our common purpose as Arkansans. During her inauguration speech, Governor Sanders spoke of a “generation brimming with passion and new ideas to solve age-old problems” and one “moored to the deepest values and oldest traditions yet unafraid to challenge the present order and find a new way forward.” Unfortunately, Governor Sanders and other elected officials’ insistence that Arkansas “needs” more prisons is not “a new way forward.” It is merely more of the same.
Locking up members of our community does not create a long-term improvement in Arkansas communities. The Arkansas Department of Corrections has been plagued with staffing issues, violence in the prisons, and the inability to keep those inside healthy.
Our prison system is already unsustainable. Arkansas incarcerates 942 out of every 100,000 of its citizens. Not only is that far higher than the national average (664 per 100,000). When you compare Arkansas to NATO countries like The United Kingdom (129 per 100,000), France (93 per 100,000), and Iceland (33 per 100,000), those numbers are even more staggering. Clearly what we’re doing is not working.
Instead of building more prisons, we ask that our state legislators use our tax dollars to implement real criminal system reforms such as pretrial services, mental health courts, access to mental health care, supportive housing, drug and alcohol addiction treatment, more drug and veterans courts and job training and rehabilitation while in prison.
If Governor Sanders wants to forge a new path forward, we should look to states that are realizing the true benefits of reducing their prison and jail populations. We welcome the opportunity to speak together and create a better Arkansas that works for us all.
Here are just a few of the ways we could begin this work today:
Leverage outside technical assistance and research on evidence-based practices
Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences
Create or expand specialty courts and/or other alternatives to incarceration
Engage with community service providers and employers before release from prison
Impose shorter terms of community supervision
Expanded initiatives to overcome barriers to the feasibility of release
Allow or expand sentence credits through a variety of measures
Create robust reentry services with a focus on case management and success rather than punitive sanction
We cannot move toward a more equitable economy or address the full complexity of the needs of families when millions of taxpayer dollars are being used to lock up more people. Making meaningful progress will require comprehensive system changes and investments into the community steeped in evidence-based approaches that create greater safety and well-being for communities across Arkansas.
If you would like to see your tax dollars redirected to smarter investments that will stop the revolving incarceration door, please sign on and let our leaders and stakeholders know that the same policies and procedures we have been following for the last fifty years just aren’t working. It’s time to do the hard work of bringing real change to our criminal legal system to insure fairness and equity for everyone.
Signed,
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Arkansas Appleseed Legal Justice Center Arkansas Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas Arkansas Coalition for Peace and Justice Arkansas Community Organizations Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition Arkansas Peace and Justice Memorial Movement Central Arkansas Democratic Socialists of America Circles NWA Compassion Works For All DecARcerate Do-It-Yourself L.A.W. (Legal Advocacy Workgroups) DSA of Northwest Arkansas Faulkner County Coalition for Social Justice Indivisible Little Rock and Central Arkansas Intransitive Investing in Black Futures Libertarian Party of Arkansas Little Rock Freedom Fund National Lawyers Guild, Arkansas Chapter Nayborhood Activist Reinvest in Conway Washington Foothills Youth Media Arts & Literacy Collective
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Today, DecARcerate and Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition joined several legal organizations, non-partisan policy organizations, and local criminal justice reform advocates to call on Governor Sanders to invest our taxpayer’s dollars in modern, proven means to address the needs of our families and communities, rather than waste those taxpayer dollars on the same-old systems that simply do not work.
Zachary Crow, Executive Director of DecARcerate, said, “Despite voting in February to add an additional 498 beds, there has already been talk of additional prison expansion during this legislative session. Arkansas legislators have consistently turned to prison expansion in an attempt to lower crime rates, address overcrowding in prisons and jails, and as a political ploy to further their own ‘tough on crime’ agendas. Their lack of imagination further entrenches Arkansas in an unsustainable and oppressive system of mass incarceration, which is incapable of addressing many of the underlying societal harms that lead to behavior lawmakers deemed criminal. Prison does nothing to address poverty, the mental health crisis, addictions, and systemic trauma. Together we must demand better of our elected officials, in pursuit of a more just and equitable Arkansas.”
Sarah Moore, Executive Director of Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition, said, “During a celebration of MLK Jr during the weekend in Fayetteville, Dr. Cornell West said that we get “well adjusted to injustice” and “well adapted to indifference.” Building more prison beds when we know that we will disproportionately place poor, black and brown folks into these beds is the indifference we should push back against. When other states in the country are reducing incarceration and turning to evidence-based approaches to drive their economy and to keep their families together, why would we do more of the same that only tears at the fabric of our families and more injustice? We can invest in community solutions that keep us safe, strengthens families, and create an Arkansas that works for all of us. Governor Sanders gets to decide what her legacy will be. More of the same or forging a new path of prosperity and well-being for Arkansas?”