Corrections officials say policy changes on the way
by Sonny Albarado, Arkansas Advocate
September 23, 2025
Arkansas legislative leaders pressed state corrections officials Tuesday to acknowledge that a May prison escape resulted from systemic failures rather than solely the actions of two employees.
Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne said the escape of a convicted murderer and rapist wouldn’t have happened had the two workers — a kitchen supervisor and a tower guard — done their jobs and followed policy. Those employees were fired shortly after Grant Hardin’s escape and recapture on June 2.
“Those two employees were the main characters,” Payne told Rep. Howard Beaty Jr., a Crossett Republican and co-chair of the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions subcommittee.
Four other employees at the North Central Unit near Calico Rock have been suspended and one demoted since the escape, according to documents presented to the committee.
The documents included an extensive Arkansas State Police report detailing how Hardin, 56, escaped and breakdowns in communications and policy lapses. The 900-plus pages of the report include summaries of interviews with prison employees and supervisors and others involved in the 10-day search for the escapee.
Legislators focused on the policy lapses, including confusion over whether kitchen staff had been directed not to let any inmates out onto a kitchen loading dock without supervision. A standing written order that allowed kitchen workers assigned to cleaning duties to work on the dock — where Hardin had been — without supervision was superseded by a verbal directive just weeks before the escape, the state police report determined. But not all kitchen supervisors remembered hearing that specific command, the report noted.
There also was some confusion about who was responsible for alerting state police and other law enforcement agencies to the escape, which delayed notifications and quick action, according to the report.
“We definitely have some policy issues we have to work through,” Payne later told Sen. Ben Gilmore, a Crossett Republican who is the ALC’s co-chair. Republican Sen. Ben Gilmore of Crossett (right) and Sen. Matt McKee (R-Pearcy) in a previous legislative session. (Photo courtesy of Arkansas Senate)
Corrections Secretary Lindsay Wallace agreed that her department and prison administrators must address several policy issues raised by the state police report as well as the Division of Correction’s own internal incident review.
Republican Sen. Matt McKee of Pearcy, the subcommittee co-chair, said, “It sounds like everyone was confused out there that day. And that comes down to the leadership of the warden … So this isn’t just about two employees. This is a failure systemically because we didn’t have the training, we didn’t have the policies worked out.”
Payne, asked if he’d decided to discipline Warden Thomas Hurst, replied that he was still reviewing the matter.
Tuesday marked the third meeting since June at which the subcommittee heard testimony about Hardin’s escape and how prison staff and corrections leaders handled it and its aftermath.
The Division of Correction internal report noted that Hardin should have been classified as a high-security inmate rather than medium because of his dual convictions. His custody classification score had not been reviewed since October 2019, but even then his score should have made him ineligible for incarceration at the North Central Unit, the report said.
Rep. Jason Nazarenko, R-Cotter, asked Wallace what the Corrections Department was doing to fix the classification system to prevent inmates from being misclassified.
Although the classification system is automated, staff employees review them, Wallace noted. Department and correction division personnel policies, however, prevented the departmental supervisor from disciplining unit-level classification personnel who don’t follow her guidance, according to the internal report. The report recommends additional training for unit classification staff and more frequent review.
Wallace said that her department is reviewing other policy changes that would “hopefully stem future problems.”
Department Chief Legal Counsel Tawnie Hughes told the panel she didn’t know how Hardin’s misclassification happened. When she tested the automated system, she said, she always got the number of points that should have sent to Hardin to a maximum security prison. He has been at the Varner Unit since his recapture.
“What we need is another set of human eyes … We’re working on a training system that will help,” she said.
Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.
