Senate backs longer prison stays for repeat offenders

Senate Bill 177 by Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, requires offenders who have served three or more stays in the Department of Correction to serve 80 percent of their sentences before being eligible for release.

Despite warnings state prisons lack money and space for more criminals, senators voted 20-9 Wednesday for a proposal requiring repeat offenders to stay in prison longer.

Later Wednesday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson promised to veto the legislation should it reach his desk.

Senate Bill 177 by Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, requires offenders who have served three or more stays in the Department of Correction to serve 80 percent of their sentences before being eligible for release.

“We have put such a burden on our sheriffs and our prosecutors,” King said. “These people who are incarcerated have had multiple, multiple opportunities to improve their situation and it hasn’t worked.”

King said the bill was a public safety matter aimed at preventing more crime.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Hutchinson panned that argument.

“This bill does not qualify as a well-designed plan,” Hutchinson said.

“For one thing, the main argument for this legislation is that it will increase public safety.

“This is not the case, I can assure you. In fact this bill pushes additional offenders into already overcrowded county jails.”

During a debate on the Senate floor, the governor’s nephew, Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, said the practical effect of the bill would be to authorize emergency releases of prisoners every 90 days under the Emergency Powers Act.

The bill is projected to add 5,499 prisoners into the prison system by 2026, according to an assessment of SB177 done for the Arkansas Sentencing Commission.

The Department of Correction has had to release inmates under the Emergency Powers Act for years because of chronic overcrowding.

The cost to house, feed, guard and provide medical care to those additional inmates is estimated at $692 million over 10 years, according to the assessment.

In his statement, Hutchinson said the costs would endanger other portions of the state budget, including education and child-welfare funding.

In the first year alone, the Correction Department would have to come up with $20 million to accommodate the added population, money the department doesn’t have and which hasn’t been promised by lawmakers, prison spokesman Solomon Graves said.

Graves earlier this week told King and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the department’s opposition to the bill.

Members of the panel then voted to endorse the legislation with King promising to present a funding mechanism.

“It is not responsible to impose a $20 million cost … without having a way to pay for it,” Sen. Hutchinson said. “This is not a solution.”

If no way to come up with the money is realized, King said he won’t attempt to pass his bill.

He said he has asked the governor for a meeting to discuss funding ideas.

Sen. Hutchinson, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, criticized King for moving forward with the legislation without a way to pay for it during the meeting earlier this week. That led to a debate.

King repeatedly derided Sen. Hutchinson’s previous votes in favor of a criminal-justice overhaul, which King said failed to reduce crime.

Increased tax revenue from online retailer Amazon’s voluntary plan to collect sales taxes in Arkansas could help pay for the program, King said Wednesday.

Estimates on that pot of money range from $30 million to $50 million a year, lawmakers have said.

The Amazon money is also a popular revenue source pointed to by lawmakers advocating for other projects, including highways.

Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R- Cabot, said people have offered to house Arkansas inmates for $30 a day. State prisons cost nearly $70 per day, he said.

“There are solutions if we can find them,” Williams said.