Arkansans File Lawsuit Against Post-Prison Transfer Board and Department of Corrections for Unconstitutional Parole Revocation Proceedings

LITTLE ROCK – Today, a group of incarcerated people filed a class action lawsuit against the Arkansas Post-Prison Transfer Board (PPTB) and the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) for fundamentally unfair and procedurally flawed parole processes and practices that blatantly violate the rights of Arkansans on parole.

In two landmark cases, the U.S. Supreme Court established that people facing revocation of their parole have certain due process rights, including a right to counsel in certain circumstances, to speak on their own behalf, and to present and cross-examine witnesses. However, as the plaintiffs allege in their lawsuit, these and other rights continue to be denied to incarcerated people in Arkansas, where thousands have been returned to prison under unconstitutional proceedings.

Eligible parolees are not provided counsel. They are often pressured or coerced into waiving parole revocation hearings, or else they are denied the ability to exercise their right to present evidence or witnesses on their behalf at those hearings. People with disabilities are also frequently denied the accommodations they need to meaningfully participate in their parole revocation hearings. The plaintiffs are represented by the MacArthur Justice Center, the ACLU of Arkansas, and Latham & Watkins.

Olivia Fritz, Attorney for MJC’s National Parole Transformation Project said, “Parole has become one of Arkansas’s most powerful and least examined drivers of mass incarceration, quietly returning thousands of people to prison through arbitrary and often opaque revocation processes. By challenging the PPTB and ADC’s unchecked authority to reincarcerate people with only sham hearings and no accountability or transparency, we can take real steps to making Arkansans safer.”

“Arkansas is sending people back to prison through parole revocation proceedings that are fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional,” said John C. Williams, Legal Director of the ACLU of Arkansas. “People are denied lawyers, pressured to waive their rights, and blocked from presenting evidence in their own defense. This lawsuit is about enforcing basic due process and stopping a system that undermines justice.”

“In addition to being unconstitutional, Arkansas’s policies disproportionately harm people with disabilities, who are often deprived of the right to meaningfully participate in the parole-revocation process," said Samir Deger-Sen, partner at Latham & Watkins. “By fighting for reasonable accommodations, we hope to ensure that all Arkansans are treated fairly.”

A copy of the complaint can be found online here.