Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Reparation Board In 10th Year

Attorney General Winston Bryant recently joined with crime victims and victim advocates to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Arkansas Crime Victims Reparations Program. Bryant also recognized the reparations board chairman Larry Dunklin, a Little Rock attorney who has served on the program's board since its inception.

"Since the General Assembly established the reparations program, more than $12.3 million has been distributed to eligible crime victims. and this money didn't come from hard-working taxpayers," Bryant said. "It came from those who should be paying the cost of crime - the criminals. I think this is a great service for innocent victims of violent crime," Bryant said.

The Arkansas Crime Victims Reparations Program was established in 1987 and provides financial assistance to victims and their families who have suffered injury or death as a result of criminally injurious conduct committed in Arkansas.

Funding for the program comes from additional sentencing fees paid by criminals convicted of or pleading guilty to certain state and federal crimes.

Bryant said that many Arkansans still need to know that assistance is available. The reparatons program received an all-time high of 1,927 applications for assistance during its 1997 fiscal year, and Bryant said that he thinks there may have been many more eligible crime victims who did not apply to the program.

Recently passed legislation will expand the program's coverage to include Arkansas residents who are victims of terrorist acts outside the United States.

The program's definition of "victim" was also expanded to include secondary victims, such as family members of homicide victims, child victims and sexual assault victimns. This will allow an even greater number of people to be eligible to apply to the reparations program.

"As Arkansans continue to travel the road toward increased rights and services for crime victims, it remains an honor for me to be associated with the Arkansas Crime Victims Reparations Program, Bryant said. "The creation of the victims' program is truly one of the greatest achievements of our state's legislature."