January 26th Parole Hearing

After getting off the phone with the State Parole Board, here is the information regarding the scheduled January 26th parole hearing. The January 26th date is when the Parole Board's "decision" will be announced. On January 4th there will be a hearing for those opposed to parole to speak in front of the board. On January 24th there will be a hearing at the Ouachita River Correctional Facility for David and his supporters to speak in front of the Parole Board.

I was able to get a little more information regarding the charges David was convicted of. Sexual indecency with a minor, regardless of whether you are convicted of four offenses like David, or 400 offenses, is not a deniable offense. In other words, the legislature has taken out of the parole board's hands. The board has no option to deny parole. They will either grant parole, or delay parole again. And if they don't have a good reason to delay parole, it will be granted.

If you have written letters to the parole board in the past, please take this information and use it. Don't just write about how David needs to stay in prison. This isn't part of what the parole board will really be looking at. In order for them to defer his parole again, they'll have to have a reason to keep him in prison. Some other evaluation or treatment program for him to complete, otherwise he will be released.

Since the parole hearing in November, David has been given his sex offender mental health evaluation in order to determine his sex offender level. He has been assigned a level three status. What this means specifically is that there is "a history of repeat sexual offending, and/or strong antisocial, violent or predatory personality characteristics."

Upon release, notification for a level three sex offender will include local law enforcement agencies (including school safety officers), "victims or guardians of victims, heads of agencies and organizations that serve individuals in the offender's target group, individuals or heads of families with members within the offender's target group who are likely to encounter the offender, any member of the community whom the offender is likely to encounter, based on the offender's prior history, recreational or religions interests, employment, or the characteristics of the offender's victims." Those likely to encounter the offender are also given an Offender Fact Sheet.

What I'm failing to understand, the dots I'm failing to connect here, is how someone that is deemed in a mental health evaluation to be so unsafe to society and the community to require such a high level of community notification, can be completely ineligible for denial of parole as deemed by the state legislature. There is no doubt in my mind that if (and when) released, David Pierce will offend again. At this point, it's not the parole board that should be blamed when David is released. It's the legislature that needs to answer some hard questions. How has an offense like sexual indecency with a minor remained an undeniable offense? Why has no one questioned this before now? Couple this with the fact that Arkansas has a statute of limitations for child sexual abuse (while many states do not), and there are some serious issues that need addressing by the Arkansas legislature.