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Newsbrief:
Arkansas
Prisons
Say
Methamphetamine
Penalties
Should
Be
Lowered
11/15/02
In a fit of meth-induced
hysteria, Arkanasas legislators two years ago voted to require methamphetamine
offenders to serve 70% of their sentences. As a result, meth offenders
now make up 500 of the state's 13,000 prisoners and are serving an average
of nine years, according to the state Department of Corrections (DOC).
Other drug offenders typically serve two years and one month.
Now, the DOC is planning
to ask the lawmakers to reconsider that law, the Memphis Commercial Appeal
reported on Monday. The severe sentences for meth offenders contribute
to overcrowding and budget shortfalls, DOC officials told the newspaper.
The DOC already is asking for an $18 million supplemental appropriation
for the 2003 budget and plans to ask that its 2004 budget be increased
from $185 million to $225 million.
Legislators need to think
about whether they want to pay millions more to punish meth users, said
DOC spokeswoman Dina Taylor. "This is a decision lawmakers have to
make," she told the Commercial Appeal. "If this is what they want
us to do, we'll do what the state wants us to. But we'll need money."
"There was an outcry about
the meth problem," state Rep. Bob Adams (D-White Hall) told the newspaper.
"That was the legislature's answer, and the problem was it was too effective.
It filled the prisons with meth offenders. It took care of one problem,
but created another."
State Sen. Mike Everett (D-Marked
Tree) introduced legislation to amend the law last year, but it went nowhere
in the face of opposition from law enforcement and "tough on crime" legislators.
Maybe next year, though: Budget crises have a way of concentrating
the mind.
-- END --
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Issue #263, 11/15/02
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