"Priority Area 1:Â Work with state agencies to receive and analyze data to identify drivers of Arkansasâs high recidivism rates and understand how recidivism contributes to overall crime and incarceration rates. Update: During the middle of January, CSG Justice Center staff received the first signed data use agreement (DUA) from the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) and provided the technical means for ADC staff to begin uploading data to CSG Justice Center servers. Additionally, staff continued to follow up with the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) with respect to the performance bond and worked with the CSG national office on how to best satisfy the additional paperwork associated with the performance bond while ensuring funders are comfortable with the arrangements. Staff spoke with internal CSG Justice Center leadership regarding possible alternative means of fulfilling this requirement. While on site in Little Rock, CSG Justice Center staff spoke with a representative for the governorâs office regarding the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC) who offered to follow up with the agency to facilitate any issues with the transfer of data. Priority Area 2: Work with practitioners and justice-impacted individuals around the state to engage in qualitative assessments of the effectiveness of supervision practices, identify barriers to successful reentry, and determine potential gaps in needed services for individuals reentering society. Update: CSG Justice Center staff continued to develop a plan to begin assessment work within the state. As part of that work, staff began contemplating what questions need to be answered during the assessments. Using those questions, staff continued to review publicly available reports in preparation for on-site work once the ongoing political dispute between the Board of Corrections and the governor is resolved. Additionally, in January, CSG Justice Center staff attended the fourth meeting of the Legislative Recidivism Reduction Task Force. A few themes emerged in the questions being raised by task force members, including how the Board of Corrections and Department of Corrections should respond to the lack of evidence-based programming, a desire to hear about specific examples of strategies used in states that have been successful in responding to similar challenges, and curiosity about the accuracy and validity of assessments used within the Department of Corrections. In a conversation following the meeting, task force leadership asked for CSG Justice Center assistance in providing task force members with background information on evidence-based practices as well as examples of how other jurisdictions have been successful in reducing their recidivism numbers. Following the task force meeting, staff met with a representative from the governorâs office who was able to connect the team with the stateâs chief workforce officer. Other stakeholders have identified him as a key figure to work with in our reentry assessment, specifically regarding employment. Priority Area 3: Cultivate strong relationships with policymakers and stakeholders in the state to ensure that Arkansasâs JRI project has the greatest possible impact on the criminal justice challenges facing the state. Update: Â In early January, the judge presiding over the Board of Corrections lawsuit with the governor and the secretary of corrections held a hearing and subsequently granted a preliminary injunction blocking Act 185 and portions of Act 659 (The Protect Arkansas Act). The provisions in question sought to transfer oversight of the secretary and the division directors from the board to the governor and secretary, respectively. Shortly after the ruling, the board met and voted to fire the secretary of corrections. Shortly thereafter, the governor announced that the former secretary would join her staff as a âsenior advisorâ over corrections matters. While an appeal has yet to be made, the attorney general has indicated that he plans to proceed with an appeal. CSG Justice Center staff anticipate it will likely be within the next several weeks. CSG Justice Center staff have been sensitive to how we meet with stakeholders and agency officials while the leadership of ADC is uncertain. This has increased the number of conversations, as ADC staff have been very careful about who they speak to and what they say. Once the question of ADC leadership is resolved, CSG Justice Center staff are hopeful that conversations with ADC will be more open as they speak more freely. Additionally, a hearing was held in the attorney generalâs Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the board. However, the judge in that case dismissed it without prejudice, citing that the attorney general had not made good faith efforts to work with the board in resolving an apparent conflict of interest his office had due to its representation of the board in an unrelated federal lawsuit. The attorney general has indicated that he also plans to proceed with an appeal in that case. Staff anticipate it will likely be within the next several weeks as well. CSG Justice Center staff also traveled to Little Rock to attend the fourth meeting of the Legislative Recidivism Reduction Task Force. The meeting largely centered on a presentation provided by the Quality Improvement and Program Evaluation Administrator for the Department of Corrections. She presented on the departmentâs efforts to assess its programming at facilities and whether they were evidence based and indicated that many programs were not. Several task force members requested that they receive concrete examples of programs that had worked in lowering recidivism in others states and were generally interested in finding a way to establish programs that are evidence based. Following her presentation, a representative of a substance use treatment program described some of his efforts to connect individuals eligible for parole to services in the community, particularly those with substance use issues. Staff also met with a task force member representing the judiciary to discuss her goals for the task force as well as any insight she had from her experience presiding over a criminal docket."
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