AR Legislative Council – Charitable, Penal, and Correctional Institutions Subcommittee – June 30, 2009
Posted on June 30th, 2009
Date & Time: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Location: Room 272, State Capitol
Agenda: http://tr.im/qkz3
Attachments: None
Here is an interesting Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: http://tr.im/qkyp That report is kind of dated since it was published in 2004 and uses 2001 data.
Here is an interesting article in Psychology Today about crime rates, recidivism, and rehabilitation: http://tr.im/ql83
Here are the stances that will predictably be taken on Arkansas Prisons:
- Liberals – What we got he-ah is failyah to rehabilitate
- Democrats – What we got he-ah is failyah to exculpate
- Republicans – What we got he-ah is failyah to administrate
- Conservatives – What we got he-ah is failyah to incarcerate
- Bureaucrats – What we got he-ah is failyah to appropriate
- Prisoners – What we got he-ah is failyah to exonerate
1:34 pm – Opening remarks made by chairman Bobby Glover.
1:35 pm – Mr. Larry Norris, Director of the Department of Correction is currently reporting on the pending investigations within the Department of Correction. He is pointing out the accredations and improvements going on in the department. He acknowledges lapses of judgement and complacency, but says that is not the rule, but exceptions.
1:36 pm – Mr Norris is currently discussing the prisoners found in feces and in need of medical attention. 17 disciplined, 2 terminated and others were given lesser punishments.
1:39 pm – Senator Glover is pointing out to Mr. Norris that the governor and legislators will not stand for the state to get a black eye over the prison management and return to federal oversight that occured in the past.
1:40 pm – Representive Gaskill is questioning if too many people are being sentenced to the prisions. Mr. Norris said that occurs to a minor degree but for the most part, those that are there need to be.
1:42 pm – Rep. Dismang is pointing out that the Lt. involved in this incident had discipline problems in the past and asked why psychological evaluations where not done at least at the supervisory level. Mr. Norris responses that it had been tried in the past and had been relatively unsuccessful in identifying problems.
1:44 pm – Rep. Harrelson is pointing out the complaints legislators regularly recieve and asking if the prisons have logs of rounds and checks being made like occurs in hospitals. Mr. Norris points out that the rounds are made and logged for the isolation area. Rep Harrelson asked about “best practices” and if there is a manual is published. Mr. Norris responds that the accreditation manuals and policy are published. He states that the policies are not the problem, but the application of the policies is the source of the failure.
1:48 pm – Rep Davy Carter is asking why the legislature was not informed about this, especially since it happened during the time we were in session. Mr. Norris says that “we have not reported to the legislature on a daily basis.” Senator Glover says, “Well, we might change that.” He followed up that we might need to be informed of investigations going on. Apparently the Corrections Board and the Governor was notified. Mr. Glover said it is bad that we had to hear about this when it came out in the press.
1:52 pm – Rep Carter points out that he requested and obtained the minutes of the board meeting, and there is not one mention of this event in the minutes. He wants to know if that is standard procedure to receive reports from the Department of Corrections but not to discuss these issues in the public format of the Board of Corrections. He asks if it is not the responsiblity of the Board of Corrections to handle these situations and begin to address them. Rep. Carter goes on to point out that he finds it hard to believe that the warden did not know things like lap dances were going on. To make matters worse, it appears that the board members were not doing their job to address issues of this magnitude.
1:57 pm – Senator Glover informs us that the Chairman of the Board of Corrections was requested to be here, but apparently he had other responsiblities that he had to attend to.
1:58 pm – Rep. Pennartz is questioning if the inmate had been recently been visited or diagnosed by a mental health professional. Mr. Norris does not know the frequency, but knows that he had been seen by a mental health professional. Rep. Pennartz if asking if the policies for accreditation were followed concerning mental health issues. Mr. Norris does not know if the policies were followed.
2:01 pm – Rep. Burris is asking about the board meetings and the responsiblity of the Board of Corrections. He has the last five board meetings and there is no mention. He wants to know the policy / protocol for notifying the Board. Mr. Norris says that it may be a phone call or an email. Mr. Burris is asking if all incidents are reported and if there is a rating system. Mr. Norris said that all incidents are sent to the Board and the Governor. Rep. Burris asks if incidents are discussed at the board meetings. Mr. Norris said that he thinks it is generally discussed among themselves.
2:05 pm – Rep. Pam Adcock is asking about the mental health policies and who those things are implimented and followed upon. Mr. Norris said that it is documented just like a medical record.
[Side note from me: Not even our Quorum Courts can "discuss among themselves" their business without informing press there meetings.]
2:08 pm – Rep. Dismang is following up on an apparent conflict in testimony. He needed clarification on if all issues are reported to the Board of Corrections and the Governor’s office. Mr. Norris said that they are all reported and more serious issues are also reported directly.
2:10 pm – Rep. Kidd is asking why the inmate involved was orginally incarcerated. Mr. Norris did not have that information. Rep. Kidd asked why the inmate was placed in solitary. Mr. Norris says that he was disturbing other inmates and displaying erratic behavior. Mr. Kidd complimented Mr. Norris and expressed belief that the situation where a mountain was being made out of a mole hill.
2:13 pm – Mr. Norris is now reporting on the prison escape. He is giving the details of how the escape was accomplished. The car avaliable was placed there under the guise of a “tobacco deal”. Apparently complacency during a shift-change allowed the inmates to walk out. Several new procedures have been put in place. There have been 6 people fired and several suspensions and other disciplinary actions.
2:16 pm – Rep. Harrelson is asking about the security of the uniform shop. He followed up with biometric checkpoints. Mr. Norris said that the it had been tried but did not work. Rep. Harrelson ask about funding. Mr. Norris said that we are better than some surrounding states, “but you get what you pay for.”
2:24 pm – Rep. Dismang is pointing out that it seems that the problems of lack of integrity. Mr. Norris agreed in one case, but he feels that others were simple complacency. Mr. Norris says you can’t legislated integrity and you can’t measure it to judge the suitablity of new employees.
2:27 pm – Rep. Lea is asking about the use of trustees. Mr. Norris says that they are very important
2:28 pm – Rep. Burris is asking if the escape was discussed at the board meeting. Mr. Norris says he discussed it with several of the members at the board meeting. Rep Burris asks if it was done in the formal part of the board meeting. Mr. Norris says it was not. Apparently the discussions were held informally one on one apart from the board meetings.
2:31 pm – Rep. Glover said he would make sure that the Chair or the Vice Chair are avaliable for the next meeting. The vice chair was here and headed to the podium for questioning, but was sent back and said that inquiry would be handled next time. I personally wish we could have questioned the Vice Chair before they have time polish their talking points.
2:34 pm – Senator Luker is not asking about the growth in the prison population and funding issues. Mr. Luker is saying that there is more failures of the legislature for funding than failures of the prison system. “Perhaps we need to be investigating ourselves.” He, looking at a brochure of prison demographics, goes on to point out how long some of our sentences are for particular offenses.
2:38 pm – Kim Hendren is pointing out that he had discussed with the chair the problems with the prison board. He points out that the legislature is repeatedly facing the issue of Board not doing their jobs. Senator Hendren requested that all of the Board of Corrections attend the next meeting. I think he is expressing bi-partisian feelings among the legislature. [My feelings are that the legislators displeasure seems to be focused on the Board of Correction, rather than the Governor or Mr. Norris the Director of the Department of Correction, albeit Mr. Norris may be being indirectly targeted.]
2:44 pm – Senator Farris is requesting that the committee use it’s supeona power to get the members of the Board of Corrections before this committee for inquiry.
2:46 pm – Senator Pritchard is wearing a class ring from LSU. Can’t we impeach State Senators for that?
2:48 pm – Mr. David Guntharp, the Director of the Department of Community Correction is presenting a Rehabilitiation Programs Update. Recidivism rates are currently at the lowest they have been in the last nine years.
2:51 pm – At a three-year post release, 2005 recidivism rates increased from 7.4% the first three months to 41.4% in three years, a overall 34% increase.
2:56 pm – Sen. Glover is disappointed in the number of legislators that remained in the committe to start dealing with what he believes to be the root of some of the prison population problem.
3:04 pm – Senator Glover seems to be concerned that we need to concentrate on prevention. I am not sure he and I agree on the method that would be best policies, but we do agree where to start.
3:15 pm – Have been looking for the Department of Correction Recidivism Study. The one we are currently looking at is the latest availiable – 2005. It is not yet online. If it ever gets posted to the web, you will find it here: http://www.adc.arkansas.gov/publications.html
3:18 pm – We are currently reviewing a presentation about community correction. I really wish we had these items online so I could post links for you. If I can get an electronic copy, I will post a link.
3:23 pm – Community supervision caseload has increased from 32,691 to 53,602 since 1997.
3:25 pm – 35% of the offenders under parole supervision who were sent back to prison in 1997, that number has dropped to 15% today. This is attributed to more supervision workers in the field. The probation has gone from 0.25% to 5.23%
3:32 pm – Drug Courts only have a 5.7% recidivism rate, however as much as 35% wash out before completing the program.
3:34 pm – Uh oh, someone said “Drug Court” and Senator Pritchard is here. Looks like we will be here for a couple of more hours. He has longer drug court sermons than the expositional preachers in my church.
3:37 pm – National research shows that participants in drug court treatment programs have lower re-arrests and re-convictions than comparison groups, and lower recidivism rates while in the programs.
3:39 pm – All drug court programs have reported a positive net savings from reductions in recidivism and avoided costs to potential victims, weighed against the costs of staffing drug courts. These statistics will need to monitored to make sure these programs remain tough and tightly monitored.
3:49 pm – Committee adjourned.
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