The Arkansas Board of Correction needs to stop and rethink its latest policy decision on how to save the state time and money.

Just recently, the members of the Board of Correction -- the citizen board appointed by the governor to implement policy and oversee the operations of the state's prisons -- made a far-reaching decision, one perhaps outside their purview and one the public and legal community need to quickly weigh-in on and reverse.

No longer will inmates who die within the custody of the Department of Correction be sent for an independent autopsy.

That is a big mistake on so many levels.

Above that, Gov. Asa Hutchinson needs to remember a promise he made, long-ago, while he was a first-term U.S. Representative. Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor, vowed to a newspaper columnist (not me) to seek a federal statute or rule change that would lead to a forensic investigation and reporting of any death of an inmate while in police custody.

Does the governor remember that promise made?

Unless these new rules are adopted, such a fail-safe scenario does exist: When the death of an inmate occurs, even in a city and county jail, it must be reported and investigated by an independent agency. Almost always there is an autopsy by the state Crime Lab.

But the Board of Correction said they will no longer have Arkansas' prisons be required to send the bodies of all inmates who die in their care to the state Medical Examiner.

That opens so many conspiracy theories of abuse, neglect, murder and mayhem on the state's watch.

I can hardly comprehend this board's rationale.

The board said the prisons will send only the bodies "that warrant review" -- such as young inmates or those who died in violent or questionable circumstances -- state prisons Director Wendy Kelley said.

The policy will also change in that families of inmates also can now sign a waiver if they do not want the body of their incarcerated relative to be sent for an autopsy.

It should not be left up to the prison's management or the inmate's relatives to make that decision for an investigation and autopsy to be performed.

If a person is sentenced to be incarcerated by the state and dies in state custody, there should be an investigation into that death and it should be done by the Crime Lab and other state agencies.

So why did the Board of Correction enact this policy?

It turns out because the state Crime Lab (home of the state Medical Examiner's office) asked the board for the new regulation. Seems the Crime Lab is trying to trim its budget (and who isn't these days) by citing unnecessary work.

So why not ask the Department of Correction to back the Crime Lab on more funding and personnel, citing the needs of the Corrections Department?

Why not? Indeed.

Roughly, there are 17,747 (a 2016 figure, the latest available) men and women in prison in Arkansas under the Department of Correction's responsibility -- now, not all are in the state-run prison; some are in corporate-run facilities under the guise of the state prison system.

That is the overall population of a good sized city in most of Arkansas.

Deaths will occur.

But who is to say the state is not at fault in the death? And who will instigate legal action if a 40-year-old man drops dead in his cell, or out in the field, or in the woodshop?

What if an autopsy revealed malnutrition or some abnormal levels of toxins caused his death. What if other inmates are at risk?

The Department of Correction has reported four inmates' deaths in September. All are under investigation.

The policy is not an absolute just yet. The governor and Legislative Council still get to look at the change.

Let us all hope common sense prevails.

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Maylon Rice is a former journalist who worked for several northwest Arkansas publications. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.