Arkansas turns to early parole after prison budget slashed

Because Texas legislators were proactive about preventing prison crowding on the front end, so far we haven't had to release prisoners all at once in crisis mode. But that's been happening in other states, most recently with our neighbor to the northeast.

According to this brief AP report, a new prison "was scheduled to open partially this year [in Arkansas], but those plans were aborted when $6.6 million was slashed from the prison system’s budget." As a consequence, "the Arkansas Board of Corrections has approved early parole hearings for 648 inmates in an effort to ease prison crowding."