Senate panel hears lengthy debate on truth-in-sentencing bill that would lengthen terms for serious offenders and change parole mechanics

The Senate Judiciary Committee spent most of its session on Senate Bill 495, a sweeping criminal-justice package presented by Senator Hunter Gilmore that proposes to change parole eligibility, expand specialty courts and reentry programs, and adjust how inmates earn early release.

Gilmore described the bill as an effort to ‘bring order to chaos’ in Arkansas’s criminal justice system. "This is going to be a game changer for our state," he said, arguing the measure will require the most dangerous offenders to serve a larger portion of their sentences while creating incentives—through earned-release credits—for other inmates to complete vocational training, educational programs and other rehabilitative activities.

Attorney General Tim Griffin, who attended the hearing and addressed the committee, framed the package as an effort to prioritize public safety by incapacitating repeat violent offenders. "Common sense is when you've got people killing and doing all kind of violent things, the number one goal is to incapacitate them," Griffin said, arguing that Arkansas’s current parole culture too often produces early releases.

Key provisions described during the hearing include:

- Truth-in-sentencing categories that would set different baseline proportions of sentences to be served (the bill identifies tiers…