SB586 Summary

• Establishes new regulations for segregated confinement in Arkansas state correctional facilities, limiting standard disciplinary segregation to 3 consecutive days or 6 days per 30-day period, with extended confinement only allowed for serious violent acts.

• Creates residential rehabilitation units as therapeutic alternatives to segregated confinement, requiring inmates to receive at least 6 hours daily of out-of-cell programming, treatment, and services.

• Prohibits placement of inmates with serious mental illness in segregated confinement and requires diversion to residential mental health treatment units within 30 days, with suicide risk screening and mental health assessments mandatory upon placement.

• Restricts placement of special populations (inmates 21 years or younger, 55 years or older, pregnant, disabled, or in postpartum recovery) in segregated confinement except for short solitary confinement prior to disciplinary hearings.

• Requires specialized staff training, monthly public reporting of segregated confinement and residential rehabilitation unit populations, and annual compliance reviews by the Department of Corrections.