§ 16-93-1001 - Purpose. - Arkansas Statutes

16-93-1001. Purpose.

(a) The congested prison system has resulted in a number of changes within the criminal justice system that do not appear readily to the public eye. One major problem is that we have lost an interim sentencing alternative between placing a person on probation or a suspended sentence or sending that person to the prison system. This gap was filled in the past by incarcerating a person who received a felony suspended sentence which included, as a condition of the sentence, a period of incarceration in a local detention facility or incarcerating a person who received a misdemeanor sentence of up to one (1) year in such a facility. As the prison system backlog inundated county detention facilities, those spaces were no longer available for these types of sentences. A result of the insufficient bedspace in county detention facilities has been that more people are actually being sent to the prison system in cases where incarceration in county detention facilities is a viable alternative punishment.

(b) This subchapter will help bridge the gap that has been created. There are incentives for all facets of society. First, although the person sentenced will be incarcerated, he or she does have an opportunity to "work" his or her way out of being housed in the prison system. Also, the good time incentive allows the prisoner to reduce his or her period of incarceration, not only benefiting him or her, but also making it conducive for sheriffs to implement work projects and free up their jail space for more violent offenders. Budgetary cutbacks over the past five (5) years, for example, in revenue sharing funds from the federal government, have resulted in many community projects being neglected. An easy example is the clean-up of our cities, towns, and highways of litter and debris. From the public's standpoint, this subchapter would most importantly provide a mechanism for providing these valuable services to the public at a minimal cost. It is believed that the public will approve of the use of manual labor by persons as a just punishment.