There’s been a scandal brewing for years within our courts and prison system that most Arkansans know nothing about unless they’ve been sentenced to a bogus prison term and thus part of the story.
Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery and District 83 state Rep. Keith Slape, a former Newton County sheriff, have seen more than their share of the nonsense and are more than willing to vent their frustration with a broken process that has steadily devolved until nonviolent convicts now spend only a small fraction of their sentence behind bars and sometimes no time at all.
Even those who violate parole aren’t held responsible for their actions in this revolving-door era of prison overcrowding and leniency, both officials agree.
“Some people think the solution to prison overcrowding is to stop holding people on parole accountable for their actions,” said Montgomery. “It’s no different than parents not holding their unruly kids accountable. And we all see the results of that philosophy.”
He explained how hard someone must work at lawbreaking to be sent to prison anymore, adding that it sometimes can be a criminal’s fourth or fifth felony before they are sentenced. “It used to be a big deal to be sent to prison. There was genuine fear of going. Not anymore. Today inmates get TV, electronic tablets, good food and medical care, all for free.”
Montgomery reviews parole-hearing paperwork on anyone sentenced from Baxter County. He said, on average, parolees will do only about a tenth of their sentence, so six years actually means six months and 10 years means only one spent in prison. “There are several cases each year where the person who is sentenced to prison is actually paroled from the county jail even before that inmate ever gets to prison,” he said.
When I grew up, a criminal was paroled from prison before they finished their sentence with the understanding that if they followed the rules they could remain in society. But now the philosophy has become that we can’t keep sending people back to prison for violating the rules since our prisons are already overcrowded, Montgomery told me.
“So their solution is to stop holding them accountable,” he said. “It is usually the third or fourth time they fail a drug test before any sanctions are imposed, and typically that punishment is three days in jail. Today, should they commit another crime, the parole officer will put a parole revocation on them. However only about half of those revoked experience consequences. Plus, if revoked parolees sign a waiver, they will only do 90 days, which really isn’t even 90 days if they are awarded good-time in prison.”
As an Arkansas sheriff with a 20-year career in law enforcement, Slape said he repeatedly sent a lot of people to the Department of Corrections up to five times. “If those individuals received 10 years, they would actually serve 10 months before being paroled. During the time free, they would violate probation and receive more probation.”
During Slape’s tenure, over half of the violators were returned to prison, he said. “I had some tell me, gleefully, ‘I can do that standing on my head,’ after they served six months of a six-year sentence.
“The word ‘correction’ in our Department of Correction is sometimes confused with punishment only. Punishment is needed, but the violator needs to also correct their behavior before they re-enter society. This is where the disagreement begins,” he said. “I’ve seen innumerable amounts of people returned to prison and subsequently, when speaking with other officers, I’ve learned how demoralizing that recidivism rate is for the law enforcement officers, victims and the community as a whole.”
Slape believes that if someone’s sentence is deferred to probation or he’s paroled, Arkansas should implement a three-strike rule. If a probationer or parolee then violates any condition of their release, it would cost them a strike. After a third strike, the violator would have to serve a minimum of 33 percent of their original sentence.
Montgomery believes repeat offenders are the biggest problem those in law enforcement face. “It’s not uncommon for us to arrest someone who has been in our county jail at least 20 times and been to prison five or more times.”
“I’ve testified to legislators that we can, and should, spend more effort and money on the front end for drug rehabilitation, job skills and education for those first- or second-time prison inmates. But you also have to have the accountability to go with it. If there is no fear of going back to prison, there is no incentive to get or do better.”
The bottom line, valued readers, is that our state badly needs a process to truly hold offenders accountable. Most of us have been unaware just how warped the system has become. In a recent “unscientific poll” on the Baxter County sheriff’s website, the question was raised: If someone was sentenced to prison, then released early on parole only to violate the law, how long do you think they would end up serving in prison the second time?
“More than 80 percent of some 30,000 respondents thought the violated parolee would serve the remainder of their original sentence as a consequence of their violation,” Montgomery said. That’s what I thought too, but it’s not the case in this twisted system we’ve created. He said the sentence instead most likely would be only 90 additional days.
Although Arkansas has a habitual offender law, prosecutors often use it “as a plea bargain, and a person is rarely convicted of that,” said Montgomery. His solution? Arkansas badly needs a system where, say, the fifth time sentenced to prison, they actually do 50 percent of their original sentence or subsequent conviction, whichever is longer. The sixth time would mean 60 percent, seventh time, 70 percent, and all the way to 100 percent.
“But I can guarantee the first thing said will be that plan costs too much. To that I respond: So what’s the cost to the victims? Do they not count? How about to the courts and law enforcement? I would argue the cost would be lower in the long run when people were being held accountable.”
As District 83 representative, Slape of Compton has been trying to foster changes. He said he sponsored a bill that became law as Act 982 of 2019, which allows goods built in prison to be sold. Money from the sales will be reinvested into the prison to help those in the inmate population who want to learn a trade.
“This gives inmates the opportunity to leave prison with some type of workman skill they can use when they are released,” he told me. “We have a long way to go on this issue. We need to be smart with the state’s money and utilize the prison system to make a better Arkansas, not a punitive one. Before next session, if I’m re-elected, an interim study proposal needs to be conducted involving the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association, the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections, the Department of Correction, and other stakeholders.”
After hearing these men’s concerns and learning just how fouled up things have become in our criminal justice process, I’d say the Legislature needs to make meaningful reforms in this broken system a priority. Serving just one year of a 10-year sentence? Unbelievable.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master’s journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.