LITTLE ROCK – Anyone who commits a violent felony in 2025 will learn that Arkansas law has become much tougher on serious criminals.
They will serve longer prison sentences, and many serious offenders will not be eligible for early release. If they are eligible, they will have to work harder to earn it. If they satisfy all the conditions for parole and early release, their supervision will be stricter and they will be returned to prison if they continue to flout the law.
The tougher prison sentences are in Act 659, also known as the Protect Arkansas Act. The legislature passed it by an overwhelming margin in 2023, but several provisions for longer sentences and stricter parole conditions took effect on January 1, 2025.
It’s common for significant new laws to be phased in over an extended period, so that officials have time to put new rules in place. That is certainly true of Act 659, which makes dramatic changes in prisons and the criminal justice system.
One goal is to provide juries with more accurate information about the length of the actual prison sentences time that convicted criminals are truly going to serve.
Criminals convicted of rape and capital murder will serve 100 percent of their sentences. This tougher new standard also applies to offenders convicted of aggravated robbery, human trafficking, stalking of a child on the Internet and the more serious categories of aggravated residential burglary. It also includes a list of sexual offenses against children.
The act creates another category of serious offenders who will have to serve a minimum of 85 percent of their sentence behind bars. This category includes violent felonies such as second degree murder and first degree sexual assault.
Also in the 85 percent category are inmates found guilty of manslaughter, encouraging someone to commit suicide, first degree sexual assault, video voyeurism, patronizing a victim of human trafficking, grooming a minor for sex trafficking, first degree domestic battering, exposing a child to meth, manufacture and delivery of fentanyl and a list of offenses involving explosives.
The longer sentences brings Arkansas sentencing guidelines more in line with those used by federal prisons, where inmates convicted of federal crimes serve almost all of their sentence.
Act 659 restores a measure of credibility to the criminal justice system. When juries and judges sentence a serious offender, they will know that offender will not be released after serving a relatively small fraction of the sentence.
Act 659 requires inmates to work for the opportunity of being considered for early release, either by completing rehabilitation, anger management or skills training. The goal is to improve their chances of being productive in society. They no longer automatically earn “good time” just for being in prison. In order to accumulate credits for early release they must complete rehabilitation programs.
If an inmate is convicted of committing a crime will in prison, for example, for assaulting an officer, the new sentence will be served consecutively and not concurrently.
