A Senate panel on Monday passed a bill intended to address a seven-year misinterpretation of state law by the Arkansas Department of Corrections which lawmakers said resulted in nearly 300 inmates convicted of residential burglary losing their eligibility for parole despite what they were told at the time of their convictions.
The Committee on Judiciary advanced Senate Bill 366 by Sen. Joshua Bryant, R-Rogers, on a voice vote. The measure moves to the full Senate for further consideration.
According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Bryant said his bill is needed to address an interpretation error that originated after a 2015 law designated residential burglary as a violent felony offense.
The reclassification of residential burglary included in the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2015 impacted parole eligibility for certain offenders since state law requires a person convicted of a violent felony offense who has previously been found guilty of a violent felony to serve 100% of their sentence.
During the seven-year period covered by his bill, Bryant said the state Department of Corrections did not consider residential burglaries committed before the 2015 act to be violent felony offenses. Courts and attorneys used this guidance when negotiating plea arraignments and calculating sentences.
In May, then-Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in an opinion requested by the state Department of Corrections that any person convicted of residential burglary who commits an additional violent felony on or after April 1, 2015, should not be eligible for parole.
Officials with the Department of Corrections told lawmakers in October the policy change led to 290 inmates losing their parole eligibility and resulted in the re-incarceration of two people with prior convictions for residential burglary.
To address the misinterpretation, SB 366 would remove the “violent felony” classification for residential burglary offenses committed before April 1, 2015. The bill applies to defendants sentenced before May 24, 2022, unless the sentencing order expressly designates the defendant was sentenced under state law classifying residential burglary as a violent offense.
Defense attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, who presented the bill alongside Bryant, said the bill would not erase any convictions or mandate an offender’s release.
“It merely reinstates the thought-through stated policy recorded in writing over and over again by the Department of Corrections,” Rosenzweig said.
Bryant said he was not looking for “empathy or sympathy” for offenders but said his bill was needed “for the state to honor its word”
“Once someone from a high level tells you something, you take it to the bank,” he said.
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