diff --git a/Lib/sre_compile.py b/Lib/sre_compile.py
index 53baa0dc468..550ea158afd 100644
--- a/Lib/sre_compile.py
+++ b/Lib/sre_compile.py
@@ -410,8 +410,7 @@ def _mk_bitmap(bits, _CODEBITS=_CODEBITS, _int=int):
 
 def _bytes_to_codes(b):
     # Convert block indices to word array
-    import array
-    a = array.array('I', b)
+    a = memoryview(b).cast('I')
     assert a.itemsize == _sre.CODESIZE
     assert len(a) * a.itemsize == len(b)
     return a.tolist()