Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and Q are FM 89.

And hello again everyone and thanks very much for being with us.

Governor Hutchinson this week asked the General Assembly to approve as much as $100 million, as much as that for 500 additional inmate beds.

Arkansas is one of only four states that had an increased incarceration rate in the previous decade.

And some believe there's a better answer indeed, as Mr. Hutchinson presented his plan to the legislature, there was protests from the gallery.

I recommend another one time investment from our surplus to fund a new 498 inmate prison facility.

Now let me now let me.

No.

Turn it off, get out.

Joining us now.

Solomon Graves, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Correction, Mr Secretary thanks very much for being with us and we'll hear by the way some alternative proposals that are a little a little less of loud later in the broadcast.

But at any rate, are we talking here about an anything nearing a long term solution, or this 500 additional beds?

A band aid?

So see what I what I would say is what we're talking about is one part of a solution I've said throughout my career, and Governor Hutchinson has said throughout his tenure as governor that increasing capacity within our correction system is more than just construction.

It's about programming.

It's about operational policy changes.

It's about leveraging the support of community partners who have a.

Park for ministry or heart for volunteering or heart for serving our populations.

We've done all of that during the governor's administration, but capacity through increased construction is one part of a larger conversation.

Well, I mean, are we even ahead with this?

We even going to be ahead of the curb or just keeping pace with the curve because you've rejected you, projected an increase in continued increase in in the inmate population.

Yeah, and Steve I'm I'm glad you asked that question.

When we started this administration in 2015, we were at the tail end of a 10 year period where we saw our prison growth increased by an average of 3% a year and the first year of the governor's administration.

We were projected to grow at 2 1/2 percent a year.

Fast forward through multiple iterations of reform that we are proud to have been a been apart of seeing 2 implementation.

We've slowed that growth over the last decade is now down to .2% and we're only projected to grow 1.5% over the next decade.

This proposal does not fully meet that growth.

It puts us in a better position to as part of ongoing conversations, meet that growth with additional alternatives in addition to the proposed construction.

Well personnel shortages have been traditionally a problem with the Department of Correction.

Now you're about to add 500 or within a couple of years.

Probably add another 500 bids.

To how concerned are you about staffing levels here?

Do we have a personnel pool?

A big enough to accommodate that?

So where we're proposing this expansion is that our North Central unit in Calico Rock, which, in terms of staffing has the lowest vacancy rate of any facility within our system and has consistently had the lowest vacancy rate within our system since it opened in the early 90s.

As we look system wide, one of the challenges that we had to face was that we had a compensation structure that not only had fallen, but behind with the larger law enforcement market, but had fallen behind with the challenging workforce that we all know is being experienced coming out of this COVID pandemic.

I'm extremely pleased and appreciative of the support demonstrated by the governor and the General Assembly and November and December of last year as they supported.

And ultimately approved a comprehensive compensation increase for our uniformed staff and both of our division of correction and our division of Community correction that has put us in a better position to be competitive with the job market as we see it.

We're heading in the right direction.

We've seen a decrease in our vacancy numbers increase in our applicant pool since that plan was implemented.

We've also increased resources, not just.

In recruitment but also in Office 10.

Hopeful and expecting that those additional investments in those areas will also aid in our ability to attract and retain a professional correctional staff.

Mr Hutchinson himself noted within the past few days that a substantial portion of the inmate population systemwide consists of of repeated or not.

Yeah repeat offenders.

The recidivism rate is is significantly higher than what anybody would like it to be.

Are we not putting enough resources?

Into pardons and are not pardons, but to parole officers and probation that that part of the system community corrections, so recidivism is addressed.

Single state of ISM is really done on two fronts.

One is the preparation that that offender receives through programming and treatment within the facility and along that end one of my.

First decisions as secretary was to stand up a quality improvement in program evaluation office as a direct report to the Secretary and what that team is doing for me is taking a comprehensive look at all of our programming.

All of our treatment services and providing a road map of our adherence to best practices 'cause we don't want programming for the sake of programming, we want programming that is effective to reduce recidivism and effective to prepare our offenders.

For their greatest success upon release.

So we're doing that on it, and I'm extremely excited about the work that we've already seen through that team on the Community supervision side for the last decade, we have made investments to retool our community, supervision to align with best practices.

That's an ongoing process.

One of the conversations we're currently having is how are we servicing those offenders?

Do we need to look at?

Alternatives to traditional supervision in cording to in order to increase additional capacity for officers to focus on those high risk high need offenders.

Those conversations have have realized some reforms that have been implemented to date and that we will continue to implement have to end there.

Mr Secretary, because we're simply out of time.

We thank you for yours and come back soon.

Thank you, thank you.

We'll be right back.

We are back and as noted there was vocal opposition in the House gallery on Monday when the governor formally requested a prison expansion but less glamorous.

Reservations have been expressed for years, sometimes from within the criminal justice system, other times from the legislature itself where no member ever lost an election by being tough on crime and from the private sector from citizen organizations such as the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition.

A founding member is with us now Sarah more Miss Moore.

Thanks very much for coming onto the program.

First of all, are you specifically taking issue with Governor Hutchinson proposal for a 500 bed expansion or is it the concept of of continued prison expansion?

And I would say both.

I think that unfortunately, in Arkansas, for too long, our answer to any issue in regard to our public poverty, mental health, the need for addiction recovery services has been arrested and incarceration.

It's unsustainable for taxpayers.

But at the end of the day, it tears families apart and it hurts Arkansas.

Well, there you would not argue though, that there are some pretty tough customers who really need to be behind bars.

You're just saying there are too many or too many too few alternatives to that.

Well, there are too few alternatives.

Most of the individuals that are incarcerated within our gels and our prisons are actually nonviolent.

They're individuals a lot of times that are faced with drug addiction, type charges, theft because they've potentially looked for money.

In order to be able to fulfill their, their addiction needs.

And unfortunately the defacto place for people to get mental health across our state.

Has been in our jail and prison system, so I understand that we want to keep our community safe.

But what I'm saying is like arresting, incarcerating at the rate that Arkansas is the number 4 incarcerated in the nation is actually decreasing safety in our communities.

These alternatives, these other data backed solutions, actually improve safety, create a more vibrant economy, and are better for all Arkansans.

When you say it is not increasing safety, how is it not increasing safety?

Well, unfortunately again, the research and data that's out there is that the longer most people, especially in county jails, are arrested and they are charged but not yet convicted.

They're called pretrial, and So what happens is that they go before a judge and the judge states to us.

If I set a bond amount, that means that if you can pay for your freedom, it's safe enough for you to be back in the community to face these charges.

Unfortunately, what we have is that people are too poor to buy their freedom.

And So what I'm saying is that the data out there shows us that as individuals every single day that ticks by that they stay incarcerated.

Their life falls apart, they lose their job, they lose their housing, they lose their kids into DH DHS custody, which is stretched under the amount of children that are actually in their care, and ultimately it causes additional stressors for that individual and that family that lead to further criminal acts in the future because of desperation.

Well, bail reform, though that tends to be, or actually that is an issue for cities.

Or actually at the district and and the Circuit Court level, is it not?

How would that impact the Arkansas Department of Correction the the inmate population?

No, that's a great question.

Again, going back to studies that are out there in prison policy initiative is actually quoted on on one of those studies, and it's on their website.

Is that it shows that unfortunately 90% of criminal cases need public defenders, which means that those those individuals are too poor to afford private counsel.

And unfortunately, in our State Defender Commission system, it is not funded to the adequately enough so that we had the appropriate number of cases that are sitting on those desks.

What that leads to is longer pretrial detention, and then it leads to worse outcomes, because unfortunately those public defenders are only able to work those cases you know to it to a small degree, and those folks end up getting tougher and longer sentences, and so we kind of create this cycle where, because we don't adequately and appropriately give resources in one spot we actually create over incarceration within our county jails.

And within our prison system with these longer sentences about a minute remaining Miss Moore, there are always calls for additional social social services.

Anyway, as an alternative to to prolonged incarceration, and we seem to get there, if at all, only in small baby steps, just incrementally.

Why?

Well, that's a good question.

Unfortunately, it seems like when we we look to do huge investments, we're always looking at doing these capital improvements where we're we're OK to spend these long term amounts of money $25,000 a year to house someone, you know, in the the state prison system or $35,000 in our local county jail each year when we don't seem to have the appetite.

And I don't know why that is, I I would hope that we could have some vision and we could really think critically and we could use these.

Databack solutions that are things like you know putting public defenders, a couple of public defenders.

Additionally across 75 counties is about $9 million investment a year.

That will pay dividends, and so I think unfortunately it's a multi solution approach that has to happen in order to move the needle and so a lot of times we we.

We don't make those big swings, but we think that the time is now.

Money is many times the reason that these resources and.

And these types of improvements are not made, and so we have lots of federal monies that have come in for COVID early.

If we have a robust economy enough that we have a surplus, and so we think it's a perfect opportunity now to really envision what Arkansas, Arkansas could be for future generations.

Sarah Moore for the Justice Reform coalition.

Thank you very much for being with us.

Come back soon.

Thank you for having us.

Almost by definition, Black History Month in Arkansas involves individuals who were firsts.

That's especially true of the woman who wanted to become and then became.

Doctor.

After losing a sister to typhoid fever, suffering from rheumatic fever herself and noticing the lack of access to medical care, doctor Edith Irby Jones was motivated to pursue a career as a medical doctor.

In 1948, she became the first African American to attend and graduate from the University of Arkansas.

Medical school now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

UAMS, after moving to Houston, TX, in 1959, Jones became the first African American woman to intern at Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospital.

In 1985, she became the first female president of the National Medical Association and led the United States Taskforce on Health in Haiti to examine medical and health care efforts.

Throughout her life, she continued to serve those who could not afford health care, not only in the United States but beyond our borders in Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, China, Russia, and Africa.

In her honor, the Houston Hospital was renamed the Edith Irby Jones MD Health Care Center.

In 1997, we pay tribute to Doctor Edith Irby Jones, a true medical pioneer.

Doctor Jones, COVID and the business of Arkansas agriculture.

It's this month.

Good roots major funding for good roots is provided by Arkansas Farm Bureau, Arkansas Farm Bureau advocating the interests of Arkansas's largest industry for more than 80 years.

Arkansas counts on agriculture, agriculture counts on Farm Bureau, additional funding for good roots.

Provided by the Union Pacific Foundation.

Here to Sage Creek farms.

Honestly, wiregrass farmers with a bunch of £1200 employees.

What we do is make grass.

We manage that grass with lots of red meat, production cows, sheep, goats and pigs that all run around outside and do that grass management for us.

Our family has been here for 80 years and it's been a wonderful tradition and we've had the opportunity to continue on and stand on the shoulders that our fathers and grandfathers we're doing business together as a family.

Consistently and constantly, and that is such a blessing that it can truly be a family farm that all of our family is involved in throwing our shoulder into making this work together.

Family dinners are also business meetings and mom has to say OK, stop talking about that so we can.

We have actual family time.

God has blessed us to or entrusted us.

Maybe I should say with 1700 acres of Creek frontage of land and I feel like we need to manage it in the very best way we steward it.

The very best way that we can, and for us that is a system that is sustainable to the environment.

For my family and for the land 4th generation.

Here in the same.

Place on the same patch of ground and.

I think to me that really means something in part because you know I have the opportunity to do this because of responsible use by the last three generations of fries.

Good morning, it's always just making sure that everybody's got their breakfast.

So we'll feed pigs.

We'll give grass strips to cows.

Make sure goats and sheep are doing alright where they're at.

Her last batch was 14 little pigs, so she's got hopefully at least that many little pigs in here.

And so as they are getting ready to come out and so having little pigs what we call farrowing show kind of slimmed down just a little bit.

Go from being quite wide to get a little bit narrower, and then milk will start to drop into her utter here.

The smallest pin they'll ever have after a week, they'll get access to a couple 1000 square feet.

This is where little pigs want to be outside.

This is where they're happy, like when it was snowy for a while.

They were inside as soon as that door was cracked, they were all darting out.

Started running around.

I don't know if there's an Olympic event for little pig skating on ice, but they took to it pretty quick.

When COVID hit the cattle market plummeted, we had a heavy percentage of our revenue.

Our sales come from local restaurants and those disappeared as restaurants shut down and that really had a big impact on our bottom line.

In December of 2020, we had a contract with Butterball for a Turkey production contract and very abruptly and unexpectedly we lost that contract due to some.

Cutbacks within the company that was roughly 50% of our farm income, which meant we had to make some very hard decisions.

We had to let two very good men go.

One had been with me 17 years and it was difficult to part with them, but it was the only way we could survive the loss of the contract.

It's in those crisis moments where you have a turning point.

You have a decision to make, and I think our commitment was to our family farm.

Ours went up, pay went down.

It's not not a comfortable cushy thing, but I believe in what we're doing helped us stick around.

My grandfather purchased original 60 acres in the 40s and it has changed dramatically from his day 80 years ago.

My grandfather moved here and bought this property to 60 acres here.

We purchased this property in 2017 about 600 acre Gwen change in farming from my grandfathers.

Time to mine has been the disconnect between product.

In the consumer, we get farther and farther away from the person who's actually using our product.

Our business model is essentially is direct to customer.

We want to sell to the people who are around us.

Our main customer base is in Northwest Arkansas.

We sell into Harrison and Branson some in northeast Oklahoma.

We raise our cattle.

They are bred, born and finished on the farm.

That is one thing that I love about.

Our business model is being able to interact with the people who are using it to get.

Feedback from them directly.

What we're doing well or what we're not because of our direct consumer or direct customer model.

Our prices have stayed consistent.

We could have very well hiked our prices up very high and some people would say that we probably should have but trust in our name carries the day.

This is your side, wasn't it?

Look like not putting weight on the driver side.

A more localized regionalized food system can be more resilient, environmentally responsible, and just food system better for our animals.

Better for our customers and better for our family.

The system the idea is to imitate nature, imitate the way God set up pasture to be managed.

We we.

We saw the Buffalo herds in the plains.

They they grazed an area and they moved and then that area would have plenty of time to rest and recover and the grass has got to a cover this protecting it both.

Now while we're in cold weather and we're needing the root system to stay active.

But also in summer time when it's 100 degrees the sun is off the soil.

It's on this so that is helping lower the soil temperature which is.

Helping our root system and our forge to be able to thrive in a more difficult environment.

I seem to think about the next generation a lot as the 4th generation here.

The only reason I'm here is because of the legacy of three generations before me there's a foundation set in.

This farm making money and in us being able to do this full time and make a living doing this full time.

And so, as I think about my first child, that's on the way.

Now, my hope is that he or she would have a chance to do this at some point in the future.

And so that's part of my responsibility here.

If I view this property as mine, that this is my land.

My animals, my farm.

I'm going to treat it much differently than if I view this as something that I am stewarding that God has entrusted me with that I am stewarding for future generations for his Kingdom.

And I'm going to manage it much differently.

I'm not going to hang on to my rights and and my stuff nearly so tightly.

I'm going to be able to share that with others and and I have an eye toward passing it down to my family.

You call the cows.

You call in.

And that's our time for this week.

As always, we thank you for joining us.

See you next week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and Q are FM 89.