Hoping to avoid the spectacle of reality television, Arkansas' prison board adopted a new policy this week restricting publicity access to only credentialed members of the "news media."
The new policy, written by prison spokesman Solomon Graves, was approved by the Board of Corrections during a meeting Oct. 17 in West Memphis. The policy applies to the Department of Correction, but does not cover county jails, which are overseen by sheriffs.
Under old regulations approved in 1979 and removed Monday by the board's vote, the head of each prison or program had "the responsibility for communications with the mass media." The new policy makes clear that media access should go through the department's spokesman. Many prison wardens already refer questions to that office.
Excluding organizations whose primary purpose "is commercial production or entertainment," the policy's definition of news media specifies newspapers, TV and radio stations, magazines, online outlets and local or international news services.
Graves, who has run the department's public-information office since March, said the policy makes clear rules that previously had been put into practice through administrative directives. Those rules were enacted in response to requests from entertainment and reality-TV shows, Graves said, including pitches to place GoPro cameras on inmates' heads and to film a show about pregnant inmates at the Wrightsville Unit.
"We have to be concerned about what happens when film crews leave, what happens when crews are here," Graves said. "We will not approve any requests that place a burden on our security."
Inmates in the Department of Correction are allowed to correspond with journalists over the phone and through mail, although the conversations are recorded and the letters reviewed for content ahead of time.
Prisons from time to time also have made prisoners available for interviews from inside the facility, at the discretion of the warden. The new policy requires approval from the director of the Department of Correction for such interviews. The director also can decide whether the interviews can be filmed. Prisoners also have to sign a consent form to be interviewed.
S0-called jailhouse interviews previously have drawn the ire of prison officials, and Graves said directing interview requests through the department director was the practice before his arrival.
In 2014, two prison officials were placed on leave for allowing a television reporter to film an in-person interview with murder suspect Arron Lewis while he was incarcerated in the Tucker maximum security prison. One of the officials resigned, and the reporter, KARK's Shannon Miller, was later called to testify at Lewis' trial. He was convicted of killing real estate agent Beverly Carter.
Last year, celebrity gossip magazine In Touch featured an interview with a former Arkansas State Police trooper in prison on child-pornography charges. The inmate offered details about his handling of molestation reports from members of the Duggar family, the subject of a popular reality-TV show set in Northwest Arkansas. The magazine said it interviewed the former officer, Joseph Hutchens, through an unidentified "representative of a local law firm," which drew concerns from a former prison spokesman who had not allowed media access to Hutchens, the Arkansas Times reported last year.
The heads of two organizations representing Arkansas' newspapers and broadcasters said they were satisfied that the policy encompassed most of the state's reporters, though they cautioned that others who want to gain access could make a legal argument against the policy.
"I don't see where it's going to impact the local media," said Doug Krile, executive director of the Arkansas Broadcasters Association. "Someone down the line could say this is trying to stifle First Amendment rights, but that's a problem for those companies."
Krile said reporters were used to going through the director to interview inmates and in the past had been asked to do audio-only interviews.
Tom Larimer, the executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, said he did not have issue with the rule as long as it does not affect the Department of Correction's compliance with the state's Freedom of Information Act, which allows members of the press and the public to request certain public documents.
Larimer said he understood the department's desire to keep reality shows out of prisons, but cautioned that the policy begins a precedent toward more restrictive policies.
"When you start to define media, that's a slippery slope," Larimer said.
NW News on 10/24/2016