Concerning The Reports Made To The Governor And The General Assembly By The Board Of Corrections, Division Of Correction, And Division Of Community Correction; And To Combine Reporting Requirements.
HB1593 revises Arkansas reporting requirements for the Board of Corrections, the Division of Correction, and the Division of Community Correction. The bill changes the Board of Corrections’ report from a biennial report submitted six months before the regular session to an annual report due after each fiscal year, and it directs that the report cover both correction divisions together. It also specifies the content of the report, including statistics and other data, revenues from agricultural and inmate activities, expenditures, and progress updates on inmate discipline, programming, bed space, upkeep, and construction needs.
The bill also updates the Division of Correction director’s reporting duties to align with the new annual reporting structure and preserves the requirement to include operational and financial information. For the Division of Community Correction, the bill keeps the annual report on offense classifications and racial breakdowns, and it retains quarterly vacancy reporting on parole and probation positions and average caseloads. Overall, the measure is primarily administrative, combining and clarifying existing reporting obligations rather than creating new correctional programs or penalties.
HB1593 amends Arkansas Code §§ 12-27-104, 12-27-107, and 12-27-140 to consolidate and standardize reporting by the state’s correctional agencies. It changes the timing and scope of reports to the Governor, General Assembly, Legislative Council, and Joint Budget Committee, while preserving detailed disclosure requirements about correctional operations, finances, staffing vacancies, caseloads, and demographic data. The bill affects the Board of Corrections, Division of Correction, Division of Community Correction, and legislative oversight bodies by making reporting more frequent and more unified.
The bill appears to have been received positively and without controversy. Its votes were unanimous in both chambers, passing the House 99-0 and the Senate 34-0. The lack of recorded committee testimony suggests little or no opposition, and the measure’s administrative nature likely contributed to broad support.
There is no notable recorded contention in the available materials. The bill does require continued reporting of racial breakdowns in community correction data, but no opposition or debate is documented around that requirement. The main policy choice is procedural: whether to combine and accelerate correctional reporting, and that change appears to have been broadly accepted by legislators.