(a) (1) There is created the Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force responsible for studying the performance and outcome measures related to this act.
(2) The Bureau of Legislative Research shall provide staff support for the task force.
(b) The task force shall be composed of no more than nineteen (19) members, as follows:
(1) No more than eleven (11) members may be appointed by the Governor from the following persons:
(A) One (1) or two (2) members who are circuit court judges and who operate a specialty court program as defined under ยง 16-10-139(a);
(B) No more than one (1) county sheriff;
(C) No more than one (1) member from the Arkansas Public Defender Commission;
(D) No more than one (1) member who is a prosecuting attorney;
(E) No more than one (1) member who is a member of the Executive Board of the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police;
(F) No more than two (2) members who are Medicaid providers; and
(G) No more than three (3) members at large in order to reflect the racial, ethnic, gender, and geographical diversity of the state;
(2) One (1) member of the General Assembly to be appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate;
(3) One (1) member of the General Assembly to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
(4) One (1) member who is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Judiciary;
(5) One (1) member who is the Chair of the House Committee on Judiciary;
(6) The Chair of the Board of Corrections or his or her designee;
(7) The Chair of the Parole Board or his or her designee;
(8) The Director of the Department of Correction or his or her designee; and
(9) The Director of the Department of Community Correction or his or her designee.
(c) (1) The task force shall meet on or before the thirtieth day after April 1, 2015, at the call of the Chair of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, and organize itself by electing one (1) of its members as Chair of the Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force and such other officers as the task force may consider necessary.
(2) Thereafter, the task force shall meet at least quarterly and at the call of the Chair of the Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force or by a majority of the members.
(3) A quorum of the task force consists of seven (7) members.
(d) The task force has the following powers and duties:
(1) To track the implementation of and evaluate compliance with this act;
(2) To review performance and outcome measure reports submitted semiannually by the Department of Correction, Department of Community Correction, Parole Board, Arkansas Sentencing Commission, and Specialty Court Program Advisory Committee under this act and evaluate the impact; and
(3) (A) To prepare and submit an annual report of the performance and outcome measures that are part of this act to the Legislative Council, the Governor, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
(B) The annual report shall include recommendations for improvements and a summary of savings generated from and the impact on public safety as the result of this act.
Section:Last modified: November 15, 2016