Arkansas has somewhere around 500 cities and towns in its 75 counties. If we ranked communities solely by population, the Arkansas prison system would be somewhere around No. 25 in the state, about the size of Siloam Springs.
Get that many people together in any group and there will be, from time to time, a death. Just a few days ago, officials with the Arkansas Department of Correction announced the death of a 35-year-old inmate. Last month, the prison system had five inmate deaths within a matter of days.
What’s the point?
An external audit of the state prison system may be needed in the wake of deaths, violence.
Suspected in some, if not all, of the deaths is illicit drug use. Yes, there's a drug abuse problem within the confines of Arkansas' prison system. K2, a synthetic form of marijuana, turns up regularly among inmates and state officials believe the drug may be a contributing factor to the slew of recent deaths.
Now, plenty of Arkansans take a lock'em-up-and-forget'em approach to state prisoners, but thankfully the state cannot take such a cold-hearted approach. The prison system has death row for those few who receive the ultimate punishment, but for most inmates, time in the pen shouldn't lead to death.
At a recent legislative hearing on the recent deaths, state Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock called for an independent audit of the state's prison system. Her idea is not unreasonable.
Public accountability is a tough standard. Department of Correction officials have tight control over what's shared and what's not shared about events within prison walls. The recent deaths along with episodes of inmate violence in the last year or two raise legitimate questions about what's happening on the inside and what ought to be done to get or keep things under control.
The prison system is an insulated organization. Perhaps an external audit is the best way our lawmakers can rest easier that the state's prison system is getting its job done -- not just protecting the public from those imprisoned, but protecting the inmates themselves from each other or, from time to time, from crooked prison system employees looking to take advantage of a truly captive audience.
How can lawmakers, and the public, have a sense of trust that our prison system is transparent and accountable? By and large, there's an uneasiness as to whether the system meets those descriptions today.
Commentary on 09/19/2018