Priority Area 1: Work with state agencies to receive and analyze data to identify drivers of Arkansas's high recidivism rates and understand how recidivism contributes to overall crime and incarceration rates.
Update: In June, CSG Justice Center staff continued analysis of data provided by the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC), and the Department of Corrections (DOC). Staff merged the one year of ACIC data with community corrections data from the DOC to identify the number of people who were arrested in 2022 while on felony supervision. CSG Justice Center staff received a comprehensive list of statutory criminal code references, including specific offense rankings within the sentencing guidelines, from the DOC that will enable the team to analyze the offense data more accurately.
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: After DOC leadership approved CSG Justice Center staff's plan to visit central Arkansas, staff began internally developing our schedule to visit sites in North Little Rock, Malvern, and Hot Springs. Building off the success of our Northwest Arkansas visit, staff plan to continue our community supervision assessment with visits to several supervision. Additionally, CSG Justice Center staff plan to begin our reentry assessment by visiting the DOC intake facility and a reentry facility in Malvern.
Priority Area 3: Cultivate strong relationships with policymakers and stakeholders in the state to ensure that Arkansas's JRI project has the greatest possible impact on the criminal justice challenges facing the state.
Update: The Legislative Recidivism Reduction Task Force met in June to hear a presentation from the director of the Division of Community Corrections. Several of the topics covered included the staffing levels of the Division of Community Corrections and community supervision caseloads. The director indicated that caseloads were relatively high. The task force explored how high caseloads affect an individual's success and whether initiatives such as special courts can lower those caseloads. Additionally, task force members asked and received clarity of the different supervision levels and the division's response to those who abscond from custody.
While on site for the task force, CSG Justice Center staff met with the Attorney General's new designee to the task force, as well as the appointed prosecuting attorney and public defender. In these conversations, staff continued to hear concerns regarding Arkansans' need for increased access to high-quality substance abuse and mental health interventions, and the need for individuals to have more substantive time with community supervision officers.
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