[Crosstimbers Okie]

Originally Posted by Dingo Gibby

^^



You can say the above for most rural places in the US that aren't within reasonable commuting distance of a larger metro where there are jobs. Rural America is emptying out because there aren't any jobs. Most young people leave because of that. Unfortunately, many of those who stay support themselves through crime.


There are probably more illegal marijuana growers in the town where I grew up than farmers today.

Waldron is only an hour drive from downtown Ft. Smith. The Ft. Smith MSA has around 200,000 people, plenty big enough to find work. And the Tyson Chicken plant in Waldron is giving raises, hiring bonuses, and they hire felons. There simply aren't enough people who want to work. Most of the petty criminals draw Social Security Disability due to their "addiction" and the health problems caused by them. Some as young as their 20s, just as if they had ever paid a dime into the system.

As for crime being a necessary way for habitual criminals to support themselves, I'm a bit skeptical. See the paragraph above. And be advised that now, in the year 2021, .3 grams of methamphetamine in Scott County costs about $5. So you can get high cheaper than you can get drunk off of a cheap six-pack of beer.

The reason that crime is out of control is because the criminal justice system in Scott County is weaker than the surrounding areas and the thugs know which court will most likely give them a suspended sentence or probation vs. prison.

[Crosstimbers Okie]

Here's a little taste. The juicy part is always the file named "Affidavit," or "Affidavit For Arrest Warrant" or something similar.



https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

https://caseinfo.arcourts.gov/cconne...ate=&end_date=

Eric Simpson is merely one of a small army of Scott County scrotes who infest the place. And if you were to wonder where Eric Simpson is right now, and guess that he's on parole, you are correct.

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by Crosstimbers Okie

Here's a little taste.
...
...
... is merely one of a small army of Scott County scrotes who infest the place. And if you were to wonder where Eric Simpson is right now, and guess that he's on parole, you are correct.

A local sheriff not far from me, has a complaint about the judicial system that this illustrates. He says they don't have a sufficient mechanism in place to deal with repeat offenders. In observing the names that come across the docket here, we don't seem to have many problems, but the ones we do have have been through the system a dozen times or more.

He has never mentioned the local prosecutor (DA?) or the local judges, but has said he has made several trips to Little Rock to complain to them.

(I am located South of Bull Shoals lake, and I am not part of the legal system.)

[Crosstimbers Okie]

In theses mass-incarceration-is-evil days, Arkansas doesn't have nearly the jail and prison beds it needs. We don't even have enough beds to incentivize people into completing drug treatment. I started working in the criminal justice system in 1990. It didn't take long to realize the difference in character between people who served several years in prison vs. those who go through the revolving door. If a habitual criminal isn't locked up long enough that it hurts, they don't change their behavior.

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by Crosstimbers Okie

In theses mass-incarceration-is-evil days, Arkansas doesn't have nearly the jail and prison beds it needs. We don't even have enough beds to incentivize people into completing drug treatment. I started working in the criminal justice system in 1990. It didn't take long to realize the difference in character between people who served several years in prison vs. those who go through the revolving door. If a habitual criminal isn't locked up long enough that it hurts, they don't change their behavior.

I saw this in Texas, back in the days of Anne Richards. One of the really great things she did, was to go on a prison building spree. In the years before she became Governor, Texas prisons had been judged to be overcrowded (160% of capacity) and they were ordered to release as many prisoners as necessary to fix the problem. They released over 1000 per week, for many many weeks. Recidivism skyrocketed, and it got to the point where the average release date was 11% (38 days per year) of the sentence.

She built prisons and oversaw a program to use private jails or farm them out to other states (those last two became problematic), until prisoners were given long sentences and expected to stay long term. Immediately the crime rate plummeted and Texas soon found itself with a lot of extra bed space (which they mismanaged, but that is a different story).

[Crosstimbers Okie]

Texas went from being the safest, most economical prison system in the US, to the deadliest and one of the most expensive, all in about one year's time thanks to one single federal judge.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-po...d-our-prisons/

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by Crosstimbers Okie

Texas went from being the safest, most economical prison system in the US, to the deadliest and one of the most expensive, all in about one year's time thanks to one single federal judge.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-po...d-our-prisons/

My knowledge of that era is a bit sketchy, but the article (written in '85) basically agrees with what I saw. The late '80's were a low point in Texas history. Several years later ('91?) Anne Richards became governor, and, over the next several years (under her and George W Bush), things got better, since criminals had to actually do their sentence.

[Rock Climber]

I don't know much about the Waldron/Scott County area, except that the mountains down there are beautiful, and most of the area seems to be held in National Forests. They are covered in our local news, and apart from high school football, it is not an area that you hear much about. I would assume, based on a brief internet search, that it is very conservative, very rural, mostly white, with a hispanic minority.

[CraigCreek]

There's also some very interesting Civil War history associated with the Waldron-Greenwood-Fort Smith area, especially from the civilian side of things. Guerillas infested the area and murdered civilians almost at random, both armies helped themselves to civilians' crops and livestock, and several skirmishes and small battles were fought in the area (my g-grandmother helped nurse injured survivors of one such battle).

While Fort Smith National Historic Park has the very well preserved and maintained old fort, the total story has still not been completely told in one convenient form or place, though there are several books which deal with various aspects of what occurred here during the Civil War years. All are worth reading. There's also a small local history museum (in the old jail) in Greenwood which contains a lot of material that's worth digging through.

You can find several accounts online: check out the battle of Backbone Mountain, aka Devil's Backbone, the 1st Arkansas Artillery, the many times the fort changed hands, as control was key to controlling next-door Indian Territory, the little-known story of local civilians being gathered into the fort to avoid starvation (and the guerillas) and the evacuation of many of them by steamboat down the Arkansas and up the Mississippi Rivers to southern Illinois during the last winter of the war...

Surely wish some local historian would try to pull it all together into a book, and that more local historic sites were marked better and preserved. Meanwhile, I do what I can to share my own family stories from that time, and am thankful my family who were around then wrote things down!

[Crosstimbers Okie]

Originally Posted by Rock Climber

I don't know much about the Waldron/Scott County area, except that the mountains down there are beautiful, and most of the area seems to be held in National Forests. They are covered in our local news, and apart from high school football, it is not an area that you hear much about. I would assume, based on a brief internet search, that it is very conservative, very rural, mostly white, with a hispanic minority.

There are as many Asians as Hispanics, bought from other areas to work in the poultry industry.