LITTLE ROCK — For some adults, the end of a jail sentence is the start of a cycle that leads them right back, but a Sebastian County program that provides support for adults upon release has proven successful in breaking the cycle of recidivism.
COLLABORATION — At the 2023 Arkansas Jail Resource Day, hosted by the Cooperative Extension Service in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Public Safety, jail professionals gathered with community organizations and volunteers to discuss best practices and connect about resources for people recently released from jail. Casey Hill, extension administrative specialist, and Kristin Higgins, extension program associate for the Public Policy Center, review the day's agenda with Sterling Penix of the Arkansas Department of Public Safety. (Division of Agriculture photo.)
Captain Bill Dumas, administrator for the Sebastian County Jail, talked about his county’s successful post-incarceration support efforts during the fifth annual Jail Resource Day, hosted by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Public Policy Center in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Public Safety.
Jail administrators, sheriffs, police chiefs, volunteers and other jail staff gathered with nonprofit and community organizations from all over the state and around the country at the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service headquarters in Little Rock on Oct. 12 for a full day of panels, roundtable discussions and hourlong sessions.
“Change your world”
During the event’s jail programs panel, Dumas said transitional living or recovery housing is key to breaking the cycle of recidivism and improving the quality of life for people released from jail.
Dumas helped create a program through grant funding that connected women in custody at the Sebastian County Jail with peer support specialists, or people who have also been through the court system and have since stayed out of jail and now work for Sebastian County. The program also provided the women with recovery housing to bridge the gap between living in jail and living at home.
“From a law enforcement standpoint, when you buy into recovery, it’s going to change your life and change your world,” Dumas said. “We as law enforcement officers do not see recovery work. We never have. We see the same people over and over, we re-arrest them all the time. But when you start seeing these programs work, I promise you, the buy-in comes easy. When you stand in front of your sheriff and your quorum court, and you speak from the heart because you’ve seen it, nobody can deny it.
“If they trust you to run their jail, they’re going to trust you when you stand in front of them and tell them, ‘This is the change I’ve seen,’” he said. “This girl that we’ve had since she was 12 years old, who came to our Juvenile Detention Center and graduated and went to our Adult Detention Center, went to prison eight times. She’s now clean and sober for three years. That’s change, and you can’t argue with it.”
Day of learning
The day’s topics included jail programs — such as the importance of offering drug and alcohol recovery services — correctional health care, and recidivism, which refers to the tendency for people to re-offend after being released from custody. Sessions also covered writing and applying for grants, suicide prevention and wellness and more.
“Jail Resource Day provides a way for jail staff to learn national trends and issues while also connecting with people who are passionate about helping adults in custody successfully re-enter their communities,” said Kristin Higgins, extension program associate for the Public Policy Center. “The majority of people locked up in a county jail go home, and they need a lot of support to avoid going back to jail or prison.”
Sterling Penix, coordinator of the Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committees for the Arkansas Department of Public Safety, said Jail Resource Day is an important opportunity for stakeholders to discuss goals, challenges and new ways to promote community success.
“The program theme is to create partnerships, promote resources and build solutions for communities,” Penix said. “These efforts assist leaders and citizens as they address jail matters and the related interplay in terms of public safety, local criminal justice goals, recidivism, county budgets, local policy and more in both state and national contexts.”
History of creating change
The first Jail Resource Day was hosted in 2019 by Sterling Penix.
“Sterling hosted it at the University of Arkansas Criminal Justice Institute in a classroom, where there was standing room only,” Higgins said. “It was instantly clear to me, as an attendee, that local jail issues need more attention from us.”
Higgins said there are about 10,000 jail beds in Arkansas. According to the Vera Institute, a national organization that works to end mass incarceration, Arkansas’s jail admissions rate is 15,870 people per 100,000 residents.
“The local jail is a key part of the criminal juice system and the community,” Penix said. “According to the National Institute of Corrections, ‘Jails are the most widespread component of this nation’s criminal justice system. More people experience jail than any other form of correctional supervision.’
“The court system, law enforcement officers, citizens, state and federal correctional agencies, public funding authorities, policymakers and many others rely on the jail,” he said.
“What makes Jail Resource Day unique is we have speakers who are there to offer professional development for jail staff, and speakers who are there talking about how to support adults in custody,” Higgins said. “As far as we know, no one else in Arkansas is focusing on county jails like this.”
Past Jail Resource Days have facilitated important partnerships between jail staff and the nonprofits, community organizations and volunteers who support re-entry services for people being released from jail.
Jimmy McGill, executive director of Next Step Recovery Housing in Clarksville, Arkansas, said during the jail programs panel that his organization was created in large part because of connections established at a previous Jail Resource Day.
“Next Step ended up in Johnson County, Arkansas, because of this group on Jail Resource Day four years ago,” McGill said. “The importance of collaboration being born out of this meeting is real. Because of that day, we now have a 32-bed recovery center serving men in Clarksville.”
Higgins said participating in Jail Resource Day led the Public Policy Center to develop the Arkansas Re-Entry Simulation, which is a role-playing activity that allows people to “glimpse the challenges people face leaving jail.”
“We realized there was a need for policy discussion at the local level that involves the entire community, from landlords to banking and employers,” Higgins said. “This simulation creates an opportunity for that conversation.”
Cooperative Extension Service agents across the state also work with local courts to provide education about nutrition, parenting skills, financial management and anger management to people going through the court system. Higgins said this outreach is an important part of extension efforts to improve the communities and quality of life of Arkansans.
“People are often surprised to find out that we are working with people in jail or recently released from jail,” she said. “However, when you consider how many people in Arkansas have a drug addiction, it means many of our loved ones are in jail or have been in the court system.”
Penix said extension is a key partner in the success of Jail Resource Day.
“The Cooperative Extension Service is a tremendous asset each year,” he said. “This year, the team managed program announcements, online registration, support services, managed a grant that provided funding for the event, and much more. In simple terms, it is because of the Cooperative Extension Service team that we can host Jail Resource Day.”
For people interested in getting involved with re-entry services or supporting the needs of people in their local jail, Higgins said the first step is “better understanding your county government and how your local jail is funded and staffed.”
“Learning about its needs is important,” Higgins said. “Forming a relationship with the county sheriff or jail administrators and letting them know your interest is crucial. There may also be other groups already working with local courts and jails. Some jails and courts have programs that need volunteers, and others may be curious about it but don’t have the staff to support a program or the space to host in-jail programming.”
Higgins said people should contact their local extension office if they’re interested in hosting the Arkansas Re-Entry Simulation in their community.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.