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ARKANSAS PRISONS FILLING UP WITH METH-MAKERS THIRD IN A SERIES
Larry Norris, director of the Arkansas Department of Correction, talks recently about the impact methamphetamine cases are having on the prison population in Arkansas. A new Arkansas law requires those convicted on meth-related charges serve no less than 70 percent of their sentence.
Arkansas inmates convicted of methamphetamine-related drug charges are stacking up in Arkansas prisons.
And a strict, new Arkansas sentencing law for methamphetamine-category convictions that requires the convict to serve no less than 70 percent of sentences given by the courts has put nearly 600 meth dealers in prison with sentences that run an average of seven years longer than those being served by non-meth drug offenders, according to Larry Norris, director of the Arkansas Department of Correction.
If the methamphetamine phenomenon continues to increase, Arkansas citizens will have to reckon with the costs of keeping such convicts, Norris said. Today, the cost of detaining some 576 inmates in Arkansas prisons on meth-related convictions is an estimated $50 million over the nine-year sentence average.
Norris isn't whining.
The Arkansas Legislature in April found about $53 million in new revenue for the Department of Correction's 2004-05 biennial budget to finish the $406-million budget for those two years. The Arkansas prison system was competing for funds directly with Medicaid interests and, indirectly, with public education. Still, the public should know that the impact of the methamphetamine phenomenon does not end when those convicted are carted off to Arkansas state prison, Norris said. The costs continue. The average stay of the first-time meth dealer is nine years, compared to two years for the cocaine convict.
Norris' remedy is a philosophical one: "We need to be locking up the people we're afraid of, not just the people we're mad at," he says.
Often the two issues overlap. Meth dealers and addicts are often people to be afraid of, and the messes created for property owners where meth labs operate are certainly issues that should make the Arkansas public mad, Norris said.
Until society figures out another way to deal with the problems, the cost of keeping the convicts will go up and up, Norris said.
The problem created for the Arkansas Department of Correction is simple math -- almost 600 meth inmates stay an average of 7 years longer than other drug offenders.
Norris said those 576 inmates represent a prison population equal to nearly half of the 1,200 inmates that were backed up in Arkansas county jails just a few weeks ago.
The problem is compounded by an annual prisoner population growth rate of about 500. The new money will open about 500 new units in regular prison.
A better illustration of the inmate "we're mad at" may be those who have been released from prison on parole. Norris said those convicts often come back into the prison system for various technical violations, one of the most common being a "dirty" drug test.
"They stump their toe ( a dirty drug test ), and the parole officer gets mad, and they're back in for an average stay of nine months," Norris said. The DOC has a plan for those inmates that could keep at least 300 from clogging up the Arkansas prison system each year.
The new revenue to the department will help the department fund the Technical Violator Program that will serve as a 60-day buffer between freedom and hard prison time, where the technical violator will receive intensive counseling and be required to keep a more rigid reporting schedule. The per diem cost of the TVP program will be about $3 a day versus $41 per day for detention in prison.
The Technical Violator Program will include a new facility at Malvern that will house up to 300 TVP inmates for up to 60 days.
Inmates released on parole from the DOC are required to have a parole plan, but the plan often falls short of expectations, and the inmate finds himself back in the circle of friends and influences that made him a technical violator.
Wendell Taylor, chief of field security for Cummins, said some 1,100 Arkansas prisoners are eligible for parole but lack family and other resources in the free world to develop an acceptable parole plan.
On the issue of education, Norris said the DOC's work in that area may be somewhat obscure.
The DOC is a school district with an average enrollment each year around 4,000 students. Arkansas inmates who do not have a high school diploma when entering prison will not be released from prison until they earn the Arkansas High School Diploma, also known as the GED ( General Education Development ) diploma. The DOC conferred the Arkansas High School Diploma to more than 600 graduates during ceremonies in May and the associate of arts college degree to two.
The DOC is a nursing home, too. Some 200 inmates of the DOC's "graying population" are residents of the prison nursing home. Norris says "there's some mean old men" in the graying population who are nonetheless aged people with medical needs typical of the aged inside and outside prison walls. The state of Arkansas must provide that medical care.
Larry Norris, director of the Arkansas Department of Correction, talks recently about the impact methamphetamine cases are having on the prison population in Arkansas. A new Arkansas law requires those convicted on meth-related charges serve no less than 70 percent of their sentence.
Arkansas inmates convicted of methamphetamine-related drug charges are stacking up in Arkansas prisons.
And a strict, new Arkansas sentencing law for methamphetamine-category convictions that requires the convict to serve no less than 70 percent of sentences given by the courts has put nearly 600 meth dealers in prison with sentences that run an average of seven years longer than those being served by non-meth drug offenders, according to Larry Norris, director of the Arkansas Department of Correction.
If the methamphetamine phenomenon continues to increase, Arkansas citizens will have to reckon with the costs of keeping such convicts, Norris said. Today, the cost of detaining some 576 inmates in Arkansas prisons on meth-related convictions is an estimated $50 million over the nine-year sentence average.
Norris isn't whining.
The Arkansas Legislature in April found about $53 million in new revenue for the Department of Correction's 2004-05 biennial budget to finish the $406-million budget for those two years. The Arkansas prison system was competing for funds directly with Medicaid interests and, indirectly, with public education. Still, the public should know that the impact of the methamphetamine phenomenon does not end when those convicted are carted off to Arkansas state prison, Norris said. The costs continue. The average stay of the first-time meth dealer is nine years, compared to two years for the cocaine convict.
Norris' remedy is a philosophical one: "We need to be locking up the people we're afraid of, not just the people we're mad at," he says.
Often the two issues overlap. Meth dealers and addicts are often people to be afraid of, and the messes created for property owners where meth labs operate are certainly issues that should make the Arkansas public mad, Norris said.
Until society figures out another way to deal with the problems, the cost of keeping the convicts will go up and up, Norris said.
The problem created for the Arkansas Department of Correction is simple math -- almost 600 meth inmates stay an average of 7 years longer than other drug offenders.
Norris said those 576 inmates represent a prison population equal to nearly half of the 1,200 inmates that were backed up in Arkansas county jails just a few weeks ago.
The problem is compounded by an annual prisoner population growth rate of about 500. The new money will open about 500 new units in regular prison.
A better illustration of the inmate "we're mad at" may be those who have been released from prison on parole. Norris said those convicts often come back into the prison system for various technical violations, one of the most common being a "dirty" drug test.
"They stump their toe ( a dirty drug test ), and the parole officer gets mad, and they're back in for an average stay of nine months," Norris said. The DOC has a plan for those inmates that could keep at least 300 from clogging up the Arkansas prison system each year.
The new revenue to the department will help the department fund the Technical Violator Program that will serve as a 60-day buffer between freedom and hard prison time, where the technical violator will receive intensive counseling and be required to keep a more rigid reporting schedule. The per diem cost of the TVP program will be about $3 a day versus $41 per day for detention in prison.
The Technical Violator Program will include a new facility at Malvern that will house up to 300 TVP inmates for up to 60 days.
Inmates released on parole from the DOC are required to have a parole plan, but the plan often falls short of expectations, and the inmate finds himself back in the circle of friends and influences that made him a technical violator.
Wendell Taylor, chief of field security for Cummins, said some 1,100 Arkansas prisoners are eligible for parole but lack family and other resources in the free world to develop an acceptable parole plan.
On the issue of education, Norris said the DOC's work in that area may be somewhat obscure.
The DOC is a school district with an average enrollment each year around 4,000 students. Arkansas inmates who do not have a high school diploma when entering prison will not be released from prison until they earn the Arkansas High School Diploma, also known as the GED ( General Education Development ) diploma. The DOC conferred the Arkansas High School Diploma to more than 600 graduates during ceremonies in May and the associate of arts college degree to two.
The DOC is a nursing home, too. Some 200 inmates of the DOC's "graying population" are residents of the prison nursing home. Norris says "there's some mean old men" in the graying population who are nonetheless aged people with medical needs typical of the aged inside and outside prison walls. The state of Arkansas must provide that medical care.
