Education priorities having been accomplished, the current session of the Arkansas legislature is expected to focus on criminal judicial reform. But what would criminal judicial reform mean?
One of the pressures on the criminal judicial system is how to deal with growing prison populations. In the past, Arkansas has tried to deal with the problem by spending more money on prisons, by using early release to dump large numbers of prisoners out of prison and back into the community, and by trying privately run prisons to look for cost savings.
Liberal politicians in some other states have decided to reduce their prison populations by not enforcing many laws, doing catch and release of even violent criminals, and seeking to defund the police. All this has had a devastating effect on the citizens of those cities and has resulted in some businesses giving up and leaving the crime-ridden cities.
Are there new solutions? Can there be criminal judicial reform that does not keep taxes high and does not endanger the safety of Arkansans?
We have been told by a legislator that they can’t look at tax cuts yet because they have to do criminal justice reform first. That sounds a lot like spending all or nearly all our tax money and then doing minimal tax cuts with leftovers or just passing tax cuts for someday in the future.
Whatever the legislature does on criminal judicial reform is likely to happen fast because the Arkansas General Assembly’s session is nearing the end. That means you need to stay informed about legislation and voice your opinion before it is too late.
