Housing convicted offenders poses a major challenge for Arkansas officials amid a growing prison population fueled primarily by parolees who return to incarceration within three years. From left, moving clockwise: former Department of Corrections secretary and current special adviser to the governor Joe Profiri, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness, and Corrections Secretary Lindsay Wallace.(Photos by Mary Hennigan, John Sykes and Antoinette Grajeda for the Arkansas Advocate; graphic illustration by Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Advocate)
Forrest Abrams of Fayetteville was 18 years old when he was found dead in a Little Rock alleyway with four bullets in his back.
Darrell Dennis was convicted of the 2013 murder. A man with a lengthy criminal history, Dennis had been out on parole for five years before Abrams was killed despite being charged with 21 new crimes, including 10 felonies, since his release.
Between 2010 and 2012, admissions to state prisons fell by 19.6%. That changed after Abrams was killed…