§ 12-27-127 - Judicial transfer to the Department of Community Correction.
12-27-127. Judicial transfer to the Department of Community Correction.
(a) All commitments must specify that the inmate is to be judicially transferred to the Department of Community Correction pursuant to 16-93-1206(b)(3) or the commitment will be treated as a commitment to the Department of Correction and subject to regular transfer eligibility.
(b) (1) In accordance with rules, procedures, and regulations promulgated by the Board of Corrections and the orders of the committing court, the Director of the Department of Community Correction shall assign a newly transferred inmate to an appropriate facility, placement, program, or status within the Department of Community Correction.
(2) The director may transfer an inmate from one (1) facility, placement, program, or status to another consistent with the commitment, applicable law, and in accordance with treatment, training, and security needs.
(3) (A) An inmate may be administratively transferred back to the Department of Correction from the Department of Community Correction by the Parole Board following a hearing in which the inmate is found ineligible for placement in a Department of Community Correction facility as he or she fails to meet the criteria or standards established by law or policy adopted by the Board of Corrections or has been found guilty of a violation of the rules and regulations of the facility.
(B) Time served in a community correction facility or under supervision by the Department of Community Correction shall be credited against the sentence contained in the commitment to the Department of Correction.
(c) (1) In accordance with rules and procedures promulgated by the Board of Corrections, upon receipt of a referral from the director or his or her designee, the Parole Board may release from confinement an inmate who has been:
(A) Sentenced and judicially transferred to the Department of Community Correction;
(B) Incarcerated for a minimum of two hundred seventy (270) days; and
(C) Determined by the Department of Community Correction to have successfully completed its therapeutic program.
(2) (A) The General Assembly finds that the power granted to the Parole Board under subdivision (c)(1) of this section will:
(i) Aid the therapeutic rehabilitation of the inmates judicially transferred to the Department of Community Correction; and
(ii) More efficiently use the correctional resources of the State of Arkansas.
(B) The power granted to the Parole Board under subdivision (c)(1) of this section shall be the sole authority required for the accomplishment of the purposes set forth in this subdivision (c)(2), and when the Parole Board exercises its power under this section, it shall not be necessary for the Parole Board to comply with general provisions of other laws dealing with the minimum time constraints as applied to release eligibility.
(3) Nothing in this subsection (c) shall be construed as granting the Parole Board or the Department of Community Correction the authority either to detain an inmate beyond the sentence imposed upon him or her by a transferring court or to shorten that sentence.