Former Arkansas lawmaker Jeremy Hutchinson, who served two years in prison on federal bribery and tax charges, presents the House and Senate Judiciary committees with suggestions to reduce prison overcrowding on Sept. 30, 2026. (Photo by Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
Arkansas lawmakers and criminal justice reform advocates agreed Wednesday that improving the systems that help inmates return to society after incarceration will alleviate the state’s prison overcrowding problem.
State correctional facilities have 15,362 beds and 16,804 inmates as of Sept. 1, and county jails are often tasked with holding inmates waiting for state prison beds.
“We also need to examine what happens before someone reaches those prison beds,” said Marybeth Hill, event coordinator with the ARCHway Institute, a Florida-based substance use treatment organization. “We cannot incarcerate ourselves out of a public health crisis.”
Hill, one of 19 advocates who testified during a daylong hearing on prisons before the House and Senate judiciary committees, said a combination of support, accountability and substance use treatment helped her move on after serving time for drug charges.
One obstacle to reentry to society is the presence of drugs in prison, said Jarad Harper, executive director of the faith-based Shackle Free Ministries, based in Clarksville. Committee members said this needs to be addressed legislatively, especially if corrections employees are supplying inmates with drugs.
“I’m asking if we should be throwing the book not at the first-time criminals but maybe throw the book at people who are government employees making a very good living and eventually getting a huge pension for being part of the problem,” Ferndale Republican Sen. Mark Johnson said.
Wednesday’s hearing was the latest in series of meetings the panel is holding on prisons and overcrowding. The meetings are being held as the state is looking at alternatives after Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ plan to build a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County was put on hold because of legislative resistance.
Former Republican lawmaker Jeremy Hutchinson, son of former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson and nephew of former Gov. Asa Hutchinson, also shared his criminal justice reform ideas with the committee.
Jeremy Hutchinson resigned from the Legislature in 2018 after he was indicted in federal courts in Missouri and Arkansas on federal bribery and tax charges. The corruption scandal involved several other lawmakers, as well as lobbyists and healthcare executives.
Hutchinson served two years of an eight-year prison sentence before President Donald Trump pardoned him last year. He then became director of strategic initiatives for Unify.US, a Washington D.C.-based criminal justice reform organization that works primarily with Republican-led states.
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