Housing for prison inmates who have been granted parole but have no place to go will soon be a reality, thanks to the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections.
Department spokeswoman Rhonda Sharp said the department is converting four duplexes located at the Pine Bluff facility into halfway houses for between 30 and 32 residents.
“This will be a transitional living facility for men who were granted parole but have no families or families that can’t provide living space for them,” Sharp said.
She said the facility will house violent or sex-related offenders who would otherwise find it difficult to locate acceptable housing, but that was not the purpose of the program when it was created.
“When people get out of prison, they need help and supervision to transition back into society,” she said. “The people selected to stay at the facility will have to be able to work because they’re going to have to pay rent. They will have to buy their own groceries, cook their own meals and have to support themselves.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Sharp said department staff will not be in the buildings 24 hours a day, but there will be an office for a parole officer who will assist the newly released inmates in trying to find jobs.
“We do that for everybody,” Sharp said. “We have classes on resume writing, how to conduct interviews and things like that.”
The planned facility is located on the same complex that houses the department’s Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center, which houses up to 265 women convicted of nonviolent crimes and up to 35 convicted of violating their parole.
“It will be separated by two sets of 10-foot fences, and one of them will be slated to make it difficult for people on one side to see the other side,” Sharp said. “There will also be an 8-foot separation between the fences.”
A new road will provide access to the halfway houses, there will be security cameras and increased lighting. Sharp said personnel assigned to the women’s side will also provide security.
Sharp said the department tentatively plans to open the new facility in April, and construction on the road and to the houses is under way.
“Right now, we’re at the mercy of the weather as far as construction goes,” she said, adding that the work is being done by men assigned to the department’s facility in Texarkana.
“This program is going to benefit the state because it’s going to free up prison beds, and it will provide supervision to the offenders who are getting out,” Sharp said.
Department officials have not yet decided how inmates will be selected for the program, nor how long they will be allowed to stay in the facility.