State
Capitol Week in Review
LITTLE ROCK – Making criminal
offenders pay restitution to their victims is politically popular.
However, Arkansas and other states
have run into obstacles when they have tried to put in place effective systems
for collecting damages. One problem is that offenders often have little or no
money when they’re released from prison and their prospects of getting a good
job are severely diminished because of their criminal record.
Their debt load includes not only the
restitution they have been ordered to pay to their victims. The majority of
offenders owe court costs and fines that were imposed as part of their
sentence, and under current state law court costs must be paid first.
According to a study conducted for the
prison system, almost half of all offenders are behind in child support
payments when they are released from prison.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is
working with prison officials, law enforcement agencies and local elected
officials to improve the system for collecting restitution in Arkansas. At a
recent meeting, some proposals were discussed in preparation for the upcoming
legislative session that will begin in January.
No formal recommendations have been
written. There have been discussions about possibly establishing a central unit
to be responsible for all collections for restitution. It could have authority
to garnish wages, recoup tax refunds, suspend professional licenses, issue
non-payment notices or place liens on property.
Another idea is to not allow an
offender to be released from prison or from supervision by a parole officer
until he has paid all court-ordered restitution, fines and costs.
A great step would be to collect data
on computers so that parole and probation officers, sheriffs and others have
digital access to information that is now very cumbersome to retrieve.
Now, there is no statewide database
that makes readily available to officers how much an offender owes in
restitution. In some parts of the state, the amounts owed in restitution are
still being recorded in ledger books, which are not readily accessible by
officers of the court.
Last year a study of five counties in
central Arkansas revealed that only 31.5 percent of restitution had been paid.
More than $30 million was owed to victims by 7,751 offenders and only $9.5
million had been paid.
Of the $21 million that had not been
paid, almost $8 million was owed by offenders who were no longer under
supervision, meaning they were not behind bars or reporting to a parole officer. It is harder to collect from offenders who
are not under supervision.
Figures from other judicial districts
were just as discouraging, if not more so. In a nine-county area, out of $18
million in assessed restitution $15.9 million was still outstanding. In another
area of 12 counties, $4.6 million had been assessed and $1.6 million in
restitution was still owed by offenders.
There is a lack of jail space in many
Arkansas counties, meaning there usually is no place to hold offenders for
non-payment or contempt of court orders to pay restitution.
There is no statewide audit of
restitution payments, so state officials don’t know how much is being assessed
or paid. However, the officials who are working on the problem are concerned
that most victims are not receiving the restitution owed to them.
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