Internal review concluded Arkansas prisons lack staff, infrastructure for inmate increase

An auditor last week warned that five Arkansas prisons lack the staff and infrastructure to handle hundreds of additional inmates under a controversial expansion plan.

Department of Corrections Senior Auditor Tommy James wrote in a Dec. 6 memo that three of the five prisons where Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri wants to add temporary beds are inadequately staffed to properly supervise the influx of prisoners.

The sewer systems at all five facilities, James wrote, are already operating beyond their rated capacities, and adding prisoners will exacerbate the strain. 

The internal review adds another wrinkle to the ongoing power struggle between the state Board of Corrections and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Profiri.

Arkansas prisons chief will move ahead with rejected expansion plan. Is it legal?

Profiri and Sanders have pushed for the addition of more than 600 temporary beds to relieve the strain on county jails that house the overflow of state inmates. State prisons are already overcrowded, operating at 108% of capacity.

However, the board has only approved just under half of the requested additional beds, citing concerns about staff and inmate safety.

Profiri and Sanders pledged to move forward with the expansion plan anyway.

The board on Thursday sued Sanders and the state over a pair of new laws the board claims infringes on its constitutional authority to oversee the prison system and its leaders. 

The laws, enacted earlier this year, made Profiri accountable to Sanders instead of the board; it also made the directors of the divisions of correction and community correction report to Profiri rather than the board. 

Board members Thursday also voted to suspend Profiri with pay while the litigation is pending. 

Profiri told reporters he planned to ignore the board and continue working, noting that he reports to the governor, not the board. 

But on Friday, Profiri was not at the department office.

Asked about the auditor’s review and deficiencies in the expansion plan and whether the inadequacies would be addressed before the beds were added, a Department of Corrections spokesperson said Profiri was the person to ask.

“This is Mr. Profiri’s plan, and he is not available to ask,” Communications Director Dina Tyler said.

Asked about his absence, Tyler said: “I assume it’s because of the suspension.”

Profiri didn’t respond to questions sent to his department email address on Friday. He was apparently at the state Capitol meeting with lawmakers.

Sanders’ Communications Director Alexa Henning also distributed a synopsis of a meeting between the governor and Profiri on Friday afternoon. Sanders expressed confidence in Profiri’s leadership at the department, Henning said.

“They discussed the need to add bed space in state prisons to take pressure off overburdened county jails and provide the safety and security that Arkansans deserve,” Henning said. “They also spoke about the Board of Correction’s politically motivated stunts to suspend Secretary Profiri and how this demonstrates the Board’s commitment to protecting the failed status quo instead of doing their job to keep Arkansans safe. Governor Sanders instructed Secretary Profiri to continue to implement the Protect Act and end the failed policy of catch and early release of violent offenders.”

Audit details

Portions of the auditor’s memo were referenced in the board’s lawsuit and request for a temporary restraining order filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, and the full memo was obtained by the Advocate Friday through a public records request.

At the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern, where the board approved the addition of 60 temporary beds in the gymnasium, the vacancy rate of correctional officers is already 48%, and the facility is operating on mandatory overtime, according to the memo. James concluded that the facility’s staffing situation was inadequate to handle the additional beds.

Further, James noted that the facility’s sewer system is already operating well over capacity. The system is rated for 822 inmates, and the facility, as of Dec. 6, housed 1,931. 

At the Maximum Security Unit near Pine Bluff, the board has rejected plans for 124 new beds in the prison’s vacant Re-Entry Center. James wrote that the facility was operating with a correctional officer vacancy rate of 45% and didn’t appear to be able to handle the influx of inmates.

Further, James said the sewer system was operating just over capacity without the addition of 124 new prisoners.

At the McPherson Unit women’s prison in Newport, the board authorized renovations at a building to convert it into inmate housing for 244 additional prisoners. The staff vacancy rate at the facility is about 59%, James wrote, making it inadequate to handle the more than 240 additional prisoners.

McPherson’s sewer system is also already over capacity.

At the Ester Unit near Pine Bluff and the North Central Unit near Calico Rock, the board approved nearly 200 additional beds in existing barracks across the two facilities. James wrote that both facilities had relatively low staff vacancy rates and that the staffs could handle the increases.

Both facilities, though, already have inmate populations exceeding the rated capacities of their sewer systems.