THE TRUTH THAT WAS EXPOSED

 

©Wendell Griffen, 2022

By a unanimous vote (12-0) on November 22, the Pulaski County Quorum Court passed Ordinance 22-I-75 adopting a budget for Pulaski County for January 1 thru December 31, 2023. That budget ordinance includes funding for all probation officer positions in the Fifth Division of Pulaski Circuit Court. On behalf of myself as the current Circuit Judge for Fifth Division, Judge-Elect LaTonya Austin Honorable (who will succeed me on January 1, 2023), the probation officers, their probation clients, the human service providers who assist probation clients, and the people of Pulaski County who benefit from the work our probation officers do, we say a sincere “Thank You!” to the Justices of the Peace for their vote.

Thanks to the Quorum Court Budget Committee (led by Justice of the Peace Donna Massey) for recommending passage of the budget with funding for Fifth Division probation officers.

Thank you to the other Justices of the Peace on the Quorum Court for voting in support of the Budget Committee recommendation.

Thank you to treatment providers, community leaders, and community activists who urged Quorum Court members to support funding for Fifth Division probation officers in the 2023 budget.

Thank you to Judge-Elect Honorable for working to inform Quorum Court members, community leaders, and the public about the effort to defund court supervised and monitored probation in Fifth Division.

After the Quorum Court approved the ordinance funding the probation officer positions, County Judge Barry Hyde declared his intention to remove probation officer positions from the county budget “at the end of next year” for any of those county positions that are not occupied "and in positions that are currently occupied, we will not fill those… We are not going to fill that open position or positions as it comes along.” Then Judge-Elect Honorable presented each member of the Quorum Court a copy of the October 14 email message Hyde sent County Comptroller Mike Hutchens and Human Resource Director Chastity Scifres in which Hyde wrote: “We dropped the 4 probation officers last night. Do not advertise the [Chief] probation officer position. We will not fill it.”

By state law, the chief probation officer position must be filled. By a county ordinance passed by the Quorum Court in 2021, that position was funded for 2022. Upon the retirement of former Chief Probation Officer Alice Abson on October 31, I requested that the position be advertised so that it can be filled.  However, Hyde directed Scifres to not advertise the position and said, “we will not fill it.”

Hyde publicly revealed that he refuses to comply with state law, county ordinances that authorize Fifth Division probation positions, and covertly tried to defund Fifth Division probation positions after the Budget Committee recommended funding for them on October 6. Hyde exposed that he is an autocrat, meaning a ruler who claims unlimited power.

The following words are synonyms for autocrat: despot, tyrant, and dictator.

Pulaski County is not Hyde’s kingdom. He swore an oath to faithfully execute the laws of the United States and the State of Arkansas. Those laws do not empower Hyde’s despotism.

The November 22 Quorum Court vote made two things plain. Although he wants to do so, Hyde cannot boss the Justices of the Peace on the Quorum Court. He cannot boss other elected officials in Pulaski County – including circuit judges – or the employees of those elected officials – including the probation officers who work in circuit courts. Hyde merely thinks he can boss other elected officials and the people who work for them because he is an autocrat.

Hyde’s dictatorial announcement following the Quorum Court vote that he intends to end court-supervised and monitored probation in Fifth and other divisions of circuit court in Pulaski County – despite the vote of the Quorum Court – also exposed his ignorance about criminal punishment, probation, and recidivism. Hyde does not know – and apparently has not tried to learn – that research has shown for decades that probationers who are supervised by officers who use evidence-based supervision practices have a lower risk of recidivism.

Probationers supervised by the skilled probation officers in Fifth Division have a lower risk of recidivism than other probationers because Fifth Division officers use evidence-based practices including prosocial modeling and reinforcement, problem solving, and cognitive techniques.

The Pulaski County Quorum Court has funded court-supervised probation in Fifth Division since 1985 because Justices of the Peace understand that lowering the risk of recidivism benefits public health and safety.

It is saddening to see Hyde behave like a tyrant. It is saddening to know that Hyde craves power so desperately that he will defy state and county law, disrespect the collective judgment of the Quorum Court, disregard good work done by probation officers, and subject Pulaski County to higher recidivism.

Yet, it is encouraging to know that the Quorum Court refuses to behave like Hyde’s subjects.  The Justices of the Peace know that Pulaski County is a democratic governmental entity, not Hyde’s empire. So do the rest of us.