LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Tuesday, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the prison reform bill that aims to hold violent offenders accountable for the crimes they commit.

It’s a new bill that was signed into law Tuesday, the prison reform bill that will not only require prisoners to serve out their full sentences but also plans to add 3,000 beds to a brand-new prison facility.

Some residents are concerned with what this will mean for current inmates who are eligible for parole.

“Right now, I’m just trying to get an understanding of what’s going on”, Jessie Hatley, the brother of Brickey’s inmate Benny Hatley said.

Benny was convicted of murder in the two Cotton Plant police officers in a high-profile 1985 murder trial in Augusta. At the time, Benny was 16 and is now 56 years old.

Benny was sentenced to life without parole, but was later granted parole after the 2012 Supreme Court ruling that barred the practice of automatic life sentences for teenage murders.

“We kept fighting and fighting and fighting, and trying you know to get parole for him”, Hatley said. “And when the act came out, that’s when we really fought for him and they gave him parole.”

Senator Ben Gilmore said those who are currently scheduled for parole will not be affected.

“The goal is to certainly put an end to repeated violent crime and to push back on these folks that perpetrate those violent crimes in our community however, this bill does not impact anyone who’s already adjudicated,” Gilmore said.

Another concern of the bill by some Arkansans is where those funds to build a new prison will come from and why the funds can’t be used for a different purpose. In response, Gilmore said, “There’s definite costs, whether it’s to our victims, whether it’s our communities, and a definite cost to our law enforcement if we don’t provide the tools to keep them safe.”

Jessie Hatley said her hope is to help other inmates and their families gain an understanding of the bill and to honor her mother’s dying wish of one bringing her brother home.

“Her wish was for me to take over. So, I’m taking over and gonna go as far as I can to help not only my brother, everyone else that needs that same help he’s looking for”, Hatley said.