In an attempt to relieve pressure from crowded county jails while the completion of a new 3,000-bed prison facility remains in the distant future, the Arkansas Department of Corrections and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders have turned their focus to immediate expansions.

“We have roughly [a] 16,000-prison-bed capacity and we have north of 17,000 people that need to occupy that space,” Sanders told the Advocate Tuesday. “So it’s very clear that you don’t have to be great at math to know those numbers don’t add up, and so looking for every opportunity we can to expand capacity and crack down, make sure that violent repeat offenders aren’t back on the street.”

According to a Friday report to the prison board, more than 2,100 state inmates were being held in county jails, Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne said.

Officials started moving inmates into a vacant Tucker Unit work release facility earlier this month, and recently completed the transfer of 124 people, all of whom are either assigned to a work-release program or require minimum security.

The expansion at the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County was a project proposed by former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri, who was fired from his corrections position and then hired as a senior adviser to Sanders. Profiri’s pursuit to quickly add more beds amidst staffing shortages caused issues among Board of Corrections members, primarily with Chairman Benny Magness.

Profiri was not mentioned during Friday’s discussion.

Nearly 325 additional beds are planned in three other state correctional facilities in Batesville, Texarkana and Newport. Department Secretary Lindsay Wallace said the projects were moving toward completion and should be finalized in mid-October.

The 3,000-bed prison, which Sanders announced last March, is still in the preliminary phase. According to a recent press release from the department, officials are working alongside Sanders’ office in the selection of an “owner’s representative,” who will provide design, engineering and construction advice for the new prison.

When board member William Byers asked about the new prison Friday — which Wallace referred to as the “big elephant in the room” — Wallace assured members that selecting the owner’s representative would “really be the trigger that really pushes [us] forward.”

The land for the new prison has not been selected, Wallace said. 

Counsel contract

Though not on the agenda for Friday’s meeting, board member Lee Watson asked his colleagues to consider rescinding a previous procurement document related to attorney Abtin Mehdizadegan. He said rescinding the document would clarify that the board’s engagement letter with the attorney from December remains in full effect.

Arkansas’ prison board in March announced it would investigate when and how changes were made to a legal contract without the knowledge of state procurement officials. In the months that followed, lawmakers criticized members of the board for being unaware of their altered contract and took issue with the lack of a formal bid process for the contract.

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Lawmakers in June authorized the state’s independent auditing agency to conduct an audit of the correction board’s hiring of Mehdizadegan as outside counsel.

The board rejected Watson’s motion to immediately take action on the procurement documents. Board member Lona McCastlain said she didn’t “see what the hurry [was]” and wanted to have enough time to fully look over any related documents.

Watson said he received an agreement letter from Mehdizadegan Thursday evening, which he said was why the board didn’t have much time to review it. McCastlain said that type of quick work is “exactly why we’re here. Because we don’t look at it.”

The agreement will be taken up at the Board of Correction’s in-person meeting next month.

Other business

Board members at the start of Friday’s meeting met in executive session for more than four hours to conduct interviews for an “executive assistant to the director.” When they returned from meeting in private, Magness announced the board approved the hire of Effie Murphy.

According to the online job description, minimum qualifications for the position include a bachelor’s degree in a related field, two years of experience in program administration or a related field, and one year in a supervisory capacity. Job functions include scheduling meetings, preparing agendas, and maintaining various records.

The Board of Corrections in July announced they received 26 applications for a public information officer position, but decided to amend the job description and repost it. Currently, at least three PIO-related positions are listed on the department’s career webpage.

The interviews board members conducted Friday were not for the PIO position, though Magness said Murphy would help Shari Gray, an assistant to the board who has taken on many communications-related tasks since their previous employee retired.

Magness said in July he was looking for a “true public relations person” who would share more positive news about the agency.

Antoinette Grajeda contributed to this report.