Free college for Arkansas inmates?

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Free college for Arkansas inmates?

Leave it up to a liberal democratic politician to come up with this hare-brained idea of providing free college tuition to any convicted murder, rapist, robber, drug dealer or any other one of society’s misfits serving time on one of our Arkansas prisons.

First of all, let’s make it clear that under Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s proposed budget we, the taxpayers, will be spending $340,723,785 on the state Department of Corrections and another $78,610,629 on the Department of Community Corrections.

Now then, during a recent meeting of the Legislative Black Caucus, Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, announced she plans to file legislation to spend $1 million more of our tax dollars to provide free higher education to prison inmates.

Chesterfield is of the opinion that handing over $1 million to state prison and parole agencies to contract with an accredited college or university to provide higher education courses will be beneficial to “transitioning” felons. The DOC, with our tax dollars, already provides GED courses as well as several other rehabilitative programs to prison inmates in an effort to reduce the recidivism rate.

Despite these efforts, as well as some major changes in how Arkansas’ parole agencies deal with released felons, the three-year recidivism rate is about 44 percent, the highest it’s been since 2002, according to Arkansas Community Correction officials.

What makes matters even worse is the fact that Arkansas’ prison-population growth rate leads the nation.

The prison growth rate, prompted in part by a series of changes in parole policies aimed at cracking down on lawbreaking parolees, has resulted in 16,334 inmates in state facilities, well above the system’s 15,157-bed capacity. Then there is the situation involving our county jails that currently hold another 1,038 state inmates awaiting an opening in a state prison.

As if these figures weren’t alarming enough, we’re also told by the head of Arkansas Community Correction, Shelia Sharp, that her agency is set on trying to expand educational opportunities for the roughly 54,000 additional Arkansans who are under some form of state supervision.

Chesterfield’s proposed $1 million would be in addition to existing efforts to help offenders obtain some higher education, which at this point, hasn’t proven to be all that effective.

Supposedly, Arkansas State University and Shorter College in North Little Rock are the only Arkansas schools that have applied for authorization from the federal government to pay for prisoners’ post-secondary course work.

It is important to point out that every effort should be taken into consideration when it comes to providing opportunities to those convicted felons awaiting release from our prisons. But, despite what is currently in place and the recidivism rate, it is highly doubtful that investing another million dollars for free college courses into our prison system is all that effective when the root of the problem has yet to be addressed.

Furthermore, let’s understand that even among the law abiding people, higher education isn’t always the answer to them being successful in life.

Before our elected officials in Little Rock simply go along with Chesterfield’s proposed legislation we would seriously suggest an in-depth study into what other states are doing to deal with their criminal element as well as dealing with the recidivism rate. Let’s not continue to waste our tax dollars on something that will have little to no impact on the problem.

BIBLE VERSE

Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

33:18-21

Psalm