Explainer: Key Findings and Options from Arkansas’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative

Arkansas policymakers have long expressed concerns about the state’s high recidivism rate. Over the past 10 years, an estimated 72 percent of prison admissions in the state involved people who were revoked from supervision, with unmet substance use and mental health challenges playing a significant role in these failures.

Under the leadership of the state’s Recidivism Reduction Task Force, and with support and funding from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), state leaders launched a bipartisan, interbranch Justice Reinvestment Initiative in 2023 to assess and improve the criminal justice system in Arkansas.

Key Challenges and Findings

Between August 2023 and December 2024, The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center worked with state leaders and other key players from across the justice system to obtain and analyze data, conduct qualitative assessments of community supervision and reentry systems, and engage stakeholders at all levels to understand the challenges Arkansas faces in addressing crime and recidivism.

This analysis revealed the following key findings:

• High rates of failure on supervision reflect underinvestment in the community supervision system. Between 2014 and 2023, 48 percent of supervision terms ended with an imposition of a revocation or new sentence. During the same period, 72 percent of prison admissions were people revoked from supervision. Inadequate resources and staffing shortages produce high caseloads and prevent officers from implementing proven interventions and best practices for supervision.

• Community Correction Centers (CCCs) have the highest potential to lead to behavior change for people who are incarcerated. CCCs are residential facilities with treatment programs and services designed to reduce the need for longer-term incarceration. CCCs are currently operating at capacity, with nearly a third of placements going to people who have received supervision sanctions. CCCs have a recidivism rate of 46 percent, which is better than prisons, where just over half of released people return.

• Substance use and mental health challenges are significant predictors of recidivism. People on probation with a history of substance use referral are over two times more likely to recidivate than those with no history of referral. Similarly, people released from prison with a history of a drug conviction are nearly one and a half times more likely to recidivate than those without convictions. People on probation with a history of a mental health referral are nearly two times more likely to recidivate than those with no history of referral.

• Logistical friction within DOC operations and gaps in community-based services are barriers to success upon reentry and supervision. Unresolved fines, fees, and warrants, along with inadequate reentry services, hinder housing, employment, and rehabilitation, increasing the risk of recidivism. The parole process often overlooks job continuity, while statewide gaps in housing, behavioral health, substance use, and workforce training services further exacerbate these challenges.

Options to Address Challenges

Informed by these findings, CSG Justice Center staff developed a series of options for state leaders to consider.

• Increase commitment to evidence-based practices (EBP). Establish an EBP/ quality assurance unit within the DOC to strengthen and enforce evidence-based practices and programs across the state. This recommendation aims to improve the effectiveness of programming across the criminal justice system and better address criminogenic needs related to recidivism.

• Give supervision officers more resources. Reduce caseloads by filling officer vacancies, increasing retention, and minimizing the supervision of low-risk individuals. Give officers more time with clients and greater access to EBP tools to allow them to implement best practices for supervision. This recommendation addresses the high rate of supervision failure and its significant contribution to prison admissions.

• Increase use of CCCs. Increase CCC capacity by converting some existing facilities into CCCs and by incorporating the CCC model into the new prison DOC is building. Change CCC eligibility by restricting disqualifying offenses to a defined timeframe (e.g., 10 years) rather than rendering an individual permanently ineligible for a CCC. Create a presumption that eligible people serve their sentence in a CCC before being sentenced to prison. This recommendation increases the use of a model that has the greatest potential to meet the behavioral health needs of incarcerated people and reduce their likelihood of reoffending.

• Increase availability of behavioral health and reentry resources. Expand access to licensed therapists by increasing the use of telehealth and attracting more practitioners to the state. Invest in transitional housing and peer recovery to best support people leaving incarceration. This recommendation addresses statewide gaps in community-based services and unmet behavioral health needs.

• Conserve resources by stopping the revolving door of people cycling through the system. Increase the use of pre-sentence reports with a risk assessment component to better tailor sentences to individuals’ needs. Resolve the high volume of warrants issued for failures to appear while in custody. Automatically give individuals represented by public defenders credit for fines and fees for time spent incarcerated. This recommendation curbs the flow of people back into the system by addressing barriers to success upon release.

Next Steps

In December 2024, the Recidivism Reduction Task Force reviewed and accepted the CSG Justice Center’s comprehensive report, which outlined the options above. These options will be further explored during the upcoming legislative session.

By prioritizing evidence-based practices and increasing vital resources to support their effective implementation, the task force’s efforts have the potential to significantly reduce recidivism rates across the state. Collectively, these initiatives will strengthen public safety and help more individuals successfully navigate and complete their supervision.

Photo by Zrfphoto on Getty Images

This project was supported by Grant No. 2019-ZB-BX-K002 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.