Shown verbatim: the complete text as captured from the official PDF posted by the Arkansas General Assembly, fetched 2026-07-23. Page and line markers are part of the official record; nothing is edited or removed. The official bill page.
Stricken language would be deleted from and underlined language would be added to present law.
1 State of Arkansas As Engrossed: S4/1/25
2 95th General Assembly
A Bill
3 Regular Session, 2025 SENATE BILL 537
4
5 By: Senators Gilmore, C. Tucker
6 By: Representative M. Brown
7
8 For An Act To Be Entitled
9 AN ACT TO CREATE THE EARNING SAFE REENTRY THROUGH
10 WORK ACT; TO CREATE A SENTENCE CREDIT PROGRAM FOR A
11 PERSON ON PROBATION, PAROLE, OR POST-RELEASE
12 SUPERVISION TO EARN TIME CREDITS THROUGH EMPLOYMENT;
13 TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
14
15
16 Subtitle
17 TO CREATE THE EARNING SAFE REENTRY
18 THROUGH WORK ACT; AND TO CREATE A
19 SENTENCE CREDIT PROGRAM FOR A PERSON ON
20 PROBATION, PAROLE, OR POST-RELEASE
21 SUPERVISION TO EARN TIME CREDITS THROUGH
22 EMPLOYMENT; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
23
24 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS:
25
26 SECTION 1. DO NOT CODIFY. Title.
27 This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Earning Safe Reentry
28 Through Work Act".
29
30 SECTION 2. Arkansas Code Title 16, Chapter 93, Subchapter 1, is
31 amended to add an additional section to read as follows:
32 16-93-112. Earning Safe Reentry Through Work Act.
33 (a) As used in this section:
34 (1) "Eligible employment" means any occupation or combination of
35 occupations for which a supervised offender can provide documentation of
36 verifiable wage-earning hours in the amount of at least one hundred and
*CEB256* 04-01-2025 11:11:44 CEB256
As Engrossed: S4/1/25 SB537
1 thirty (130) hours per thirty-day period;
2 (2) "Supervised offender" means an individual on probation,
3 parole, or post-release supervision under the supervision of the Division of
4 Community Correction;
5 (3) "Supporting documentation" means an employment record, pay
6 stub, employment letter, contract, or other similarly reliable method of
7 employment verification, as determined by the Division of Community
8 Correction;
9 (4) "Work-for-time credit" means a credit that is equal to a one
10 (1) day reduction in a supervised offender's sentence that can be accrued for
11 maintaining eligible employment; and
12 (5) "Working days" means a business day that does not include
13 Saturday, Sunday, or a state or federal holiday.
14 (b) For offenses committed on or after the effective date of this
15 section, each supervised offender who maintains eligible employment shall
16 accrue work-for-time credits under the following conditions:
17 (1) The supervised offender shall provide supporting
18 documentation of eligible employment to the community supervision officer
19 responsible for the supervised offender's supervision at each meeting with
20 his or her community supervision officer;
21 (2)(A) The community supervision officer shall verify the
22 supervised offender's eligible employment through the supervised offender's
23 supporting documentation and any other means that the division determines
24 necessary.
25 (B) The community supervision officer shall enter the
26 supporting documentation into and record the supervised offender's accrual of
27 all work-for-time credits in the supervised offender's file within five (5)
28 working days of verifying the supervised offender's eligible employment;
29 (3) A supervised offender, including a person who is being
30 supervised in another state, shall accrue five (5) work-for-time credits for
31 every thirty-day-period in which the offender maintains eligible employment,
32 except for the sixty-day-period immediately prior to the supervised
33 offender's adjusted sentence end date during which no work-for-time credits
34 shall accrue;
35 (4) If the supervised offender's probation, parole, or post-
36 release supervision is revoked or if the supervised offender is convicted of
2 04-01-2025 11:11:44 CEB256
As Engrossed: S4/1/25 SB537
1 a new criminal offense or if the supervised offender provides fraudulent
2 employment documents, the supervised offender forfeits all previously accrued
3 work-for-time credits; and
4 (5)(A) A supervised offender shall not receive a work-for-time
5 credit if the offender's supporting documentation is unverifiable,
6 inaccurate, or absent from his or her file.
7 (B) If a request for a work-for-time credit is denied, the
8 community supervision officer shall record the reason for the denial of the
9 work-for-time credit in the supervised offender's file.
10 (c) There is no right to appeal the denial or forfeiture of work-for-
11 time credits under this section.
12 (d) The community supervision officer responsible for supervising a
13 supervised offender who accrues work-for-time credits shall notify the
14 sentencing court of the supervised offender's accrual of work-for-time
15 credits no less than sixty (60) days in advance of the supervised offender's
16 adjusted sentence end date, which includes the accrual of work-for-time
17 credits up to the date of the notification.
18
19 SECTION 4. EMERGENCY CLAUSE. It is found and determined by the
20 General Assembly of the State of Arkansas that recidivism threatens the
21 safety of the state; that incentivizing a person on probation, parole, and
22 post-release supervision will reduce the risk of recidivism; and that this
23 act is immediately necessary to reduce the risk of recidivism and provide for
24 the efficient and effective allocation of supervision services. Therefore, an
25 emergency is declared to exist, and this act being immediately necessary for
26 the preservation of the public peace, health, and safety shall become
27 effective on:
28 (1) The date of its approval by the Governor;
29 (2) If the bill is neither approved nor vetoed by the Governor,
30 the expiration of the period of time during which the Governor may veto the
31 bill; or
32 (3) If the bill is vetoed by the Governor and the veto is
33 overridden, the date the last house overrides the veto.
34
35 /s/Gilmore
36
3 04-01-2025 11:11:44 CEB256Every fact on this page links to its source, starting with the official bill record.