The Board of Corrections voted unanimously Friday to invoke the expanded Emergency Powers Act and certify a list of 1,244 inmates as being eligible for consideration by the Parole Board.

The list of inmates is larger than usual because the requirement that inmates must have spent at least six months in ADC before being considered has been suspended.

The suspension was authorized by Governor Asa Hutchinson’s Executive Orders 20-06 and 20-16, regarding the public health emergency, and is in accordance with ACA 12-74-114.

All inmates under consideration have been convicted of crimes that are non-sexual and non-violent under the guidelines of ACA 5-4-501. The inmates must be granted early release by the Parole Board, and they must have an acceptable parole plan, which means not every inmate on the list will be released.

All inmates will receive a COVID symptoms screening prior to their release. At the direction of the Arkansas Department of Health, all symptomatic inmates will be tested for COVID.

No inmates known to be or presumed to be positive for the virus will be released into the community until they are medically cleared. The Parole Board will work with us to delay a parole until the inmate is no longer contagious.

More than 700 inmates and staff at the Cummins unit have tested positive for coronavirus and continued testing is expected to find some more cases. Dozens have also tested positive at the lower security Little Rock Community Corrections Center,