How the 2017 Arkansas Legislature Made Life Worse for You

Act 423, “The Criminal Justice Efficiency and Safety Act,” might be the most consequential piece of good legislation the General Assembly passed. It’s a sprawling, omnibus law, with three primary components.
Most consequentially, it introduces swift and certain sanctioning, which means parolees and probationers who commit minor violations of the terms of their supervision will be sent for 45 to 90 days to Arkansas Community Correction facilities, where they will receive rehabilitative programming, instead of being sent to prison for significantly longer stints. Arkansas in recent years has had the fastest growing prison population in the country, fueled largely by parole violators returning to prison. Swift and certain sanctioning is expected to free up as many as 1,600 prison beds and save the state as much as $30–$40 million.