The State of Arkansas is responsible for managing most criminal justice institutions within the state’s borders. This article summarizes the scope of crime and criminal justice in Arkansas, also touching on what works and what could be improved to create better conditions for inmates, families, taxpayers, criminal justice workers, and public safety across the state.

Arkansas has the fourth-highest incarceration rate per capita in the United States, above Arizona but just behind Mississippi.¹ The state manages 75 jails in 75 counties, with an annual jail population of about 9,460. Arkansas also has 20 state prisons which hold about 17,713 inmates.² When other forms of detention are added (immigration detention, juvenile justice facilities, and other detention centers), the state effectively incarcerates individuals at a rate of 942 per 100,000, significantly higher than the U.S. average of 664 per 100,000. Further, while the number of people serving brief sentences or awaiting trial in jail in Arkansas has declined in recent years, the prison incarceration rate has risen rapidly. This suggests Arkansans are being sent to prison at a higher rate than in recent decades, or they’re serving longer sentences than before (or both).

Arkansas is home to three federal correctional facilities, all of which are located in Forrest City, Arkansas. The state does not utilize private prisons. According to 2020 census data, the Varner Unit, the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility, the Ouachita River Unit, the Grimes Unit, the Forrest City Med F.C.I., and the Cummins Unit are the largest detention facilities in the state, each housing anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 prisoners at any given time.³ The state spends about $354,107,530 on its prisons annually, or about $23,062 on each prisoner. The Arkansas prison budget is the 7th costliest item in the state’s annual budget.⁴

From 2019 data reported by the National Institute of Corrections, Arkansas has a violent crime rate of 585 per 100,000 and a property crime rate of 2,858 per 100,000. The state’s incarceration rate is 942 per 100,000, so nearly half the state’s prisoners are serving time for nonviolent, property-related crimes. The state also has 25,034 individuals on probation and 39,268 parolees.

According to data gathered from the Arkansas Crime Information Center, Arkansas reported about 103,000 crimes in 2019; the most recent year crime data is available. Adjusted for population, that amounts to about 3,400 crimes for every 100,000 residents in the state. That’s the fifth-highest crime rate in the nation. South Carolina has a slightly higher crime rate than Arkansas, while Oklahoma’s crime rate is slightly lower.⁵

Unfortunately, Arkansas has a very high recidivism rate. According to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, the state’s recidivism rate is 58%, meaning the criminal justice system is not working for more than half of those who go through it. Such individuals find themselves incarcerated again, sometimes just a few months or years after their release.⁶

This is an area where the criminal justice system in Arkansas will need to be improved, because it is costly to taxpayers and harmful to the incarcerated when recidivism rates are so high.

Thankfully, several criminal rehabilitation programs in Arkansas have a positive effect and are getting results. In 1994, Arkansas implemented the first drug court in Pulaski County, known as S.T.E.P., or the Supervised Treatment and Education Program. In the almost 30 years since, the state has established 49 adult and 17 juvenile drug courts, 14 DWI-specific courts, five HOPE & Swift courts, 16 veterans treatment courts, five alternative sentencing courts, two-family treatment courts, and two mental health courts.⁷

These specialty court programs aim to integrate alcohol and other drug treatment services and behavioral, mental, physical, and familial treatment into criminal justice case processing. Such programs are intended to keep some offenders out of harsh prison conditions and instead treat the underlying issues that may have led them to commit a crime in the first place.

Arkansas has also implemented some truly unique and heartwarming initiatives into its incarceration system, programs like the Paws in Prison initiative. This program has sought to reduce the number of shelter dogs being euthanized by bringing dogs into prisons, assigning the dogs to incarcerated individuals who meet certain requirements, and letting the prisoners care for and train the dogs until program coordinators can find permanent homes.⁸

Since this program began, its benefits have been three-fold:

• Paws in Prison has reduced the number of dogs euthanized every year in Arkansas. Thanks to the program, more than 1,900 shelter dogs have been cared for and trained by inmates.
• The program has allowed inmates to contribute to society and acquire skills that support successful rehabilitation and reentry into society.

• The Arkansas Department of Corrections has seen a positive impact on daily interactions between inmates and prison staff.

Despite the state’s successful rehabilitation programs, incarceration and recidivism are still quite high in Arkansas. To reduce recidivism, the Arkansas Advisory Committee performed extensive research and published findings on alternatives to prison that may help reduce recidivism. Their findings include the following:⁹

“Restorative justice helps people learn how best to be in relationships with others and function positively within a community by resolving conflict between someone who was harmed and the person who committed the harm.”

• Researchers have cited restorative justice as an effective tool for curbing recidivism. Quoting the report, “Restorative justice helps people learn how best to be in relationships with others and function positively within a community by resolving conflict between someone who was harmed and the person who committed the harm. It includes addressing underlying trauma in the perpetrator, promoting connection to positive people, and being held accountable for harm caused… This method has been shown to create more healing for the victim than the typical punitive system.”

• Directing parents who have committed petty crimes into programs where they spend more time with their children rather than serve prison sentences have also significantly reduced recidivism rates. Again quoting the report, “Incarcerating parents, especially for petty crime, creates inter-generational trauma that leads to young people with previously-incarcerated parents becoming incarcerated themselves at higher numbers.”

• Another program involves directing recently released inmates into a new environment (like a new town or housing arrangement), particularly one with support resources, as opposed to the old environment they were in before they were incarcerated. Doing so protects the newly released individual from coming up against the same environment and “stomping grounds” where they had previously committed crimes (which could put them at risk for recidivism).

• Another section of the report discussed sending low-level drug offenders to residential drug treatment centers rather than imprisonment, as treatment would be more effective for addicts who had committed a drug possession crime. The report cited cases out of North Dakota and Utah in which, when the state sent offenders to drug treatment instead of prison, recidivism rates dropped by 10%.

• Finally, panelists in the report explained how implementing educational programs inside prisons in Arkansas would be immensely beneficial. Studies from the Arkansas Department of Corrections show that each year of post-secondary education attained while in prison reduces the likelihood of recidivism by 20%.

These are just a sampling of the alternative programs that could be implemented in Arkansas (and in some cases are currently being implemented) to reduce recidivism.

Arkansas should expand rehabilitation programs inside prisons. Educational programs inside prisons in Arkansas (the Paws in Prison program is a good example) should also be expanded, with new programs implemented that fully prepare inmates for life outside of prison. Finally, alternatives to prison should be strongly considered, piloted, and, if found successful, implemented. Many Arkansas inmates serve harsh sentences for nonviolent crimes. Finding better ways to rehabilitate individuals could reduce the fiscal and societal burden of mass incarceration in Arkansas.