Mike Beebe on Drugs

Former Democratic Governor

Heavier penalties for drug trade; but not for possession

Our drug statutes must put a stronger emphasis and heavier penalties on those involved with the drug trade, instead of giving equally harsh sentences to those merely arrested for mere possession or use. Previous legislatures have built a grid of sentencing guidelines, a grid that is often manipulated or ignored to put away offenders for even longer stretches of time. Those guidelines must be more closely followed, or perhaps those jurisdictions that frequently exceed the grid should share in th cost of incarceration with our state. My proposed budget adds more than $4 million to help accommodate the Dept. of Community Correction's anticipated larger role.

The North Little Rock Police Chief said: "We're not talking about being tough on crime, or soft on crime; we're talking about being smart on crime." When it comes to criminal activity, we've got to make sure that the bad guys who will hurt you--the violent criminals or the career criminals--are the ones we lock away and save the beds for.

Source: 2011 Arkansas State of the State Address , Jan 11, 2011

Rehabilitate drug offenders; more drug-court counselors

To help safeguard our communities, we will increase funding for probation monitoring by $3.4 million. Our current probation system sees the average caseload for a probation officer at more than 100 cases. We’re going to add 60 new officers, taking the average caseload to 85. We’ll increase resources for drug-court counselors to rehabilitate drug offenders and keep prison space open for violent offenders by investing roughly $5 million in the Drug Court program. Source: 2004 State of the State Address , Jan 10, 2007

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Page last updated: Nov 23, 2011