PINE BLUFF -- A two-year program that will put soon-to-be-paroled prisoners to work tearing down derelict houses in Pine Bluff is to begin next month.
The Arkansas Department of Community Correction has received an $830,000 grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission for the pilot project, which could spread to other cities in the future, Community Correction officials said.
With about 600 houses in Pine Bluff that are scheduled for demolition, city leaders said the task would take several years without some help. Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said the demolitions will begin in early May and will primarily take place in neighborhoods that have higher crime rates.
The program had been scheduled to begin earlier this year, but it was delayed as details were ironed out.
Kevin Murphy, assistant director of re-entry and volunteer services at the Department of Community Correction, said the program will offer up to 40 prisoners an opportunity to learn at least two marketable job skills, along with basic job readiness needed to approach the workplace once they are paroled.
Also under the program, officials will hire 10 parolees from Jefferson County who are deemed to be at high risk of returning to prison otherwise. The aim is giving offenders a better chance at staying out of prison once they leave the system, Murphy said.
The inmates will be housed at four heavily supervised duplexes in Pine Bluff adjacent to the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center. Murphy said the inmates will all be from Jefferson County and will be released back into society once they complete the program.
Inmates will be accepted into the program in groups of 10 for six months at a time, he said. The laborers will work primarily on demolishing old houses, not other kinds of buildings, in the city, Murphy said.
Murphy said the program will benefit the community and the offenders.
"These people will be identified as some of the most likely to re-offend, so we want to take special care with making sure they have all the tools they need to succeed in life after prison," he said.
"It's very difficult to take on life when you are a felon on parole. We hope to make a difference in their lives. It's going to be a win-win for everyone involved."
The program will begin at a time when Pine Bluff leaders are dealing with a slew of problems related to aging structures, primarily downtown buildings. And while the program will focus only on razing condemned houses, it's one of two new efforts to clean up the city.
Simmons First National Bank, which is based in downtown Pine Bluff, is offering to partner with the city to spark growth and turn around decades of decay through a series of loans and other funds.
The bank's offices are next to two recently collapsed, vacant, aging structures and just a few blocks from another that partially collapsed last summer. Bank officials said they want to move forward with the project to improve Pine Bluff's image.
Details of the bank's plan are still being hammered out, but city officials have been enthusiastic about it thus far.
Hollingsworth said the Simmons proposal, coupled with the demolition of derelict houses, will rejuvenate the city's spirit.
"It's fantastic," the mayor said. "We can't wait to get started."
As for ridding the city of hundreds of run-down houses, many residents say they can't wait for it to happen.
In Raymond Kerr's neighborhood not far from downtown, dozens of aging clapboard houses sit vacant and in deep decay, with their owners long gone.
Kerr said he hopes that some of the houses will be part of the demolition program because he's tired of his neighborhood being run-down.
"This is something that can really benefit our city," Kerr said. "We have had to look at these old houses for so long, and to think that they could soon be gone is great. I really hope this program works and continues."
State Desk on 04/13/2015