Chained to a Guard Tower
By David Ferguson
Last week, I read Arkansas state prisons have been expanded to hold 500 more prisoners. This is just the first step in a much larger expansion, which will include construction of a 3,000-bed facility. It said the expansion is supported by local officials, and that reminded me of big headlines forty-two years ago.
Forty-two years ago, KATV reporter Mel Hanks was reporting near the fence of a state prison where fourteen prisoners were left chained to a guard tower.
Pulaski County had a problem. Its jail was overcrowded. Compounding the problem was a constant backlog of prisoners who had been committed to state prison, but the state was leaving them in the county’s jail because of the state’s own overcrowding problem.
Pulaski County Sheriff Tommy Robinson was frustrated and decided to do something drastic to highlight the problem. He ordered his deputies to take eighteen prisoners to the state prison and to leave them there. On the way to Pine Bluff deputies wondered if the state would set up a roadblock to prevent them from getting to the prison. Once at the gate there was a standoff. Prison officials said they could accept four of the eighteen but would not accept the other fourteen. So, deputies chained the fourteen to a guard tower, got into their vehicles and left.
Fortunately, Mel Hank’s report of this crazy event still exists thanks to Youtube. Take a look.
Click for videoThe chaining of prisoners to the guard tower was big news and angered state officials. But the stunt didn’t solve the problem. Over the past forty-two years, state prisoners have remained backed up in county jails. Several times counties have gone to the legislature complaining the state was not providing counties enough reimbursement to cover the cost of housing state prisoners. The taxpayers of many counties have had to build bigger and more secure county jails, in part because of housing state prisoners.
Over the decades there have been various attempts to address the problem of housing state prisoners. At times some more state prison beds have been added. Several times Arkansas governors have ordered the early release of large groups of state prisoners. There have been efforts to reduce the prison population by diverting some offenders to other corrections programs. Sentencing guidelines have been changed with an eye toward reducing incarceration. And we still have a problem.
Nobody wants to spend more money on prisons, but on the other hand nobody wants to repeat the mistakes of blue states that seem to have adopted a catch and release policy, even though it has been shown to endanger their citizens.
Will the planned prison expansion solve the overcrowding problem, once and for all? Probably not. But for too long the state has dumped its prison problems on counties. And at least it is not a step in the wrong direction, like in some blue states.
By the way, shortly before Sheriff Robinson sent the prisoners to Pine Bluff, he called me to get a copy of a state law concerning ownership and use of a detention facility in Wrightsville. I didn’t have a clue why he was asking until I saw the news report. I realized he was hoping to send the prisoners to Wrightsville, which was much closer, to Little Rock, but as I recall the facility was only for juveniles. When a deputy picked up the copy of the law, I glanced out my window at the Capitol and saw a Pulaski County prisoner van below my window. At the time I thought it was odd. I guess they were on their way.
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David Ferguson is a former Director of Arkansas’ Bureau of Legislative Research, having a thirty-two-year career as an attorney for the Arkansas legislature. After retirement from state service, his primary focus has been beef cattle farming. He is also a former officer of Conduit for Action.
