Lockups' fencing reviewed

Chain-link cited in recent escapes

Chain-link fencing used to hold maximum-security prisoners during recreation hours was flagged as problematic even before inmates managed to break free from such confines during a pair of violent episodes in recent weeks, Arkansas' prison director told lawmakers Monday.

In two separate instances, inmates at the Maximum Security Unit in Tucker were able to escape from one-man recreation pens and injure other inmates and guards, Department of Correction Director Wendy Kelley said.

Answering questions from a legislative panel on Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions, Kelley said the incidents were not the first time officials learned of problems with the pens.

Prior to the first incident -- a stabbing of another inmate that led to a pair of guards suffering injuries on July 22 -- officials had sought and been approved for funding to revamp similar pens at another maximum-security facility, the East Arkansas Regional Unit.

Workers at that prison, located in Brickeys, had learned that inmates were able to separate the chain-link fencing, but Kelley said she was unsure when the problem was first identified.

However, Kelley said officials were unaware inmates at the Maximum Security Unit also knew how to exploit the fencing until incidents there turned violent.

In the more recent of the two violent outbreaks, two inmates were able to break free from their recreation pens and follow a pair of guards who were escorting another inmate, Kelley said.

Overpowering the guards, six inmates were able to briefly get access to a stun gun and briefly take over an area of the prison before surrendering.

Kelley told lawmakers that prison officials are now looking to upgrade fencing at the Maximum Security Unit too.

It's unclear how much the fencing upgrades at either prison will cost. But the chairman of the subcommittee on corrections, state Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, said she was concerned the bureaucratic process was slowing down necessary improvements.

"When things like that happen, there needs to be some protocols in place so that folks on the ground can move swiftly," Elliott said.

Meanwhile, both prisons have added "security procedures" to curtail the threat while new fencing is being installed, a prisons spokesman told reporters.

Maximum security inmates at the prisons still receive their daily hour of recreation in the pens.

After both incidents -- as well as the disclosure than an inmate had died following an unrelated assault at the Tucker Unit -- Gov. Asa Hutchinson met with Kelley on Friday and declared that he expected "disciplinary action" to be taken in response.

Monday's meeting, which was scheduled for lawmakers to hear ideas on policies to drive people away from crime and prisons, began with lawmakers leading their own inquiry into security at the prisons.

Kelley said that policies already in place were adequate, but not properly followed, echoing what the governor said following the pair's Friday meeting.

Elliott said it was premature to say whether she agreed with Hutchinson in placing full faith in Kelley's leadership of the department, but that she had no reason to take an opposing view.

The senator also questioned Kelley about problems keeping prisons fully staffed, which the director said may be eased as a result of a recently enacted pay raise for state employees.

But Elliott told reporters that persistently high vacancy rates for corrections officers -- which prison officials have attributed in part to low salaries -- should not come as a surprise to lawmakers who oversee the department's funding.

"It's not as if we've not been made aware of it; we have. So I'd be surprised if people were not aware of it; we just didn't do anything about it," Elliott said.

Prisons spokesman Solomon Graves said Monday the department will not have to go back before the Board of Corrections to seek approval to upgrade fencing around the pens at the Maximum Security Unit.

He said temporary fixes were being done with welding. More permanent replacements will involve a new type of metal fence and concrete reinforcement.

The design of the solitary pens at the East Arkansas Unit and the Maximum Security Unit are different from those at the Varner Unit, which feature more concrete blocks, Graves said. The Varner Unit includes the state's Supermax facility.

Graves said none of the other state prisons have the type of pens that have been flagged for replacement.

Metro on 08/15/2017

Upcoming Events