Arkansas Code Title 16. Practice, Procedure, and Courts § 16-90-719. Inmate and probationer labor

(a)(1) Persons who have suffered damage to their primary residence and surrounding real property in an amount in excess of five hundred dollars ($500) as a result of a criminal act or who have had personal property stolen from their primary residence valued in excess of five hundred dollars ($500), and who do not have adequate available resources or any collateral source of reimbursement, such as insurance, to cover the costs of repairs to their property may file a claim with the Crime Victims Reparations Board in the manner and form as is presently required by the Crime Victims Reparations Board for crime victims.

(2) The Crime Victims Reparations Board shall have the power to provide labor for repairs and cleanup supplied by eligible offenders serving community correction and probationers in accordance with rules promulgated by the Board of Corrections.

(3) By this section, the Division of Community Correction is authorized and directed to promulgate necessary rules permitting the use of eligible inmates transferred to or sentenced directly to community correction and probationers to perform the repair and cleanup work contemplated by this section and consistent with guidelines established by the Crime Victims Reparations Board.

(c)(1) The Crime Victims Reparations Board and the Board of Corrections with the cooperation and assistance of the Division of Community Correction, working in conjunction with each other, shall promulgate the necessary rules to establish a program whereby eligible inmates released to or sentenced directly to community correction and probationers may perform labor on the primary residence and surrounding real property of victims whose primary residence has suffered damage as a result of a criminal act or whose personal property has been stolen from their primary residence, and whose owner does not have adequate available resources or any collateral source of reimbursement such as insurance to cover the costs of repairs or replacement.

(2) The safety of the victim, the probationer, and the inmate is to be given first priority in promulgating the rules.

(d)(1) Whenever a dollar amount of property damage or loss is referred to in subsections (a)-(c) of this section, the dollar amount shall refer to the fair market repair or replacement value.

(2) Further, no award shall be made under the provisions of this section for a loss based on the dollar amount of an insurance deductible which is five hundred dollars ($500) or less.