The Pulaski County Sheriff says the jail experiment from the Netflix series will be expanded to a second unit

Pulaski County Sheriff Eric Higgins responded to questions from media and Arkansans on Tuesday about the controversial documentary “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment.”

The series, which premiered on Netflix last month and became a streaming hit, was filmed in Pulaski County Correctional Facility for six weeks in 2023. It chronicles Higgins’ efforts to implement a radical new approach to incarceration in a single “pod,” or housing unit, within a prison. Inmates who were previously confined 23 hours a day with only one hour of rest were given freedom to move around the block and exercise yard during the day, while deputies who would normally be stationed in the pod to supervise inmates were moved outside and they made most of their observations remotely using a camera.

During the roughly hour-long hearing Tuesday morning, Higgins discussed the current status of the experiment, lessons learned and future plans for the facility. He offered some occasionally blunt responses and denials to issues raised by county and state officials. He also said that the experimental apartment arrangement documented in Unlocked will be expanded to include an additional, larger capsule.

The sheriff began with an opening statement that largely mirrored the statement he made to the court Joint Performance Review of the Arkansas Legislature committee last week. He said Higgins’ re-incarceration program launched in May 2019 had been a success and said the recidivism rate was 4%. (For context: Arkansas Department of Corrections reports that the recidivism rate is over 59% for prisoners released on parole and just under 31% for prisoners who have served their sentences.) The Unit H experiment, which was the subject of the documentary series, was based on methods that had proven successful in the initial program , Higgins said.

He compared the H Unit’s efforts to good policing outside of prison, noting that law enforcement must work with the community on the street if they want to be successful and want the community to hold each other accountable. Higgins said inmates are a community in prison and deputies must treat them as such to see any changes in inmate behavior and interpersonal relationships.

Higgins also said that removing a deputy from H-Unit – moving from “direct supervision” with the guard staying in the living room at all times to “indirect supervision” in which the guard is outside the pod and watching the inmates via a camera – is not the case radical or ridiculous, as lawmakers made it sound, and is the most common form of detention in Arkansas. He said the jail was built in 1994 as a direct supervision facility and each unit is staffed by deputies, but it is one of only three direct supervision facilities currently in use in the state, including state facilities.

Direct supervision was a great idea for prisons in the 1980s and 1990s, in large part because of research touted by the federal government that argued that a lack of supervision, not overcrowding, was causing fights and violence in inmate communities. The practice is still used to varying degrees in state and federal facilities across the country, although staffing shortages in correctional facilities in many states (including Arkansas) make it logistically difficult, if not impossible. There are currently approximately 60 job openings available at the Pulaski County Jail.

“Given our staffing levels,” Higgins said, his administration wondered if the prison could “move to indirect supervision” with guards four to six feet away from the doors. This was one of the questions they hoped to answer during the experiment.

Higgins was asked whether the experiment had been successful and, if so, how he could tell. He was unequivocal: “Yes, it was a success.” He said the unit still operates as in the series, with cell doors open and inmates free to move around the pod during the day, with the only change being that the deputy returned to the pod because the inmates specifically requested it. “It’s there as a resource,” Higgins explained. The deputy can provide detainees with information about why phones or video calls are not working and answer questions about the canteen and medications.

He pointed out that one of the things he and his administration learned from the experiment was inmates asking for a deputy to be in the pod because he didn’t expect inmates would value having access to regular information more than they would appreciate not having it. current deputy. Higgins also said that inmates expressed a sense of safety in the experimental setting, requested more programs (classes, Bible studies, etc.) and, in at least a few cases, asked to be transferred to a re-entry program where they could continue their rehabilitation and improvement efforts. personal.

He was not surprised by the success of the experiment. Higgins said that in a re-entry program, it usually takes six to eight weeks before a “light bulb goes on” for detainees and there is a noticeable change in their behavior. Higgins said the experiment in this series followed the same pattern as he expected.

Higgins said he was “disappointed” in the response from county officials and state lawmakers. He said he has repeatedly invited Pulaski County officials, justices of the peace and state legislators whose districts include any part of the county to visit the jail and “come see what we do,” but many people currently expressing “negative opinions” have never taken up the offer. . He wasn’t influenced by the “opinion” of lawmakers who may not want to see something like “Unlocked” in Arkansas again, but instead said he would continue to “move forward” and find better ways to protect and serve both inmates and society .

As he did during the legislative hearing, a reporter asked Higgins why he allowed people sentenced to life in prison to participate in the experiment if its goal was to rehabilitate prisoners and prepare them for release again. While a “sterile” environment without people convicted of murder or other violent crimes might have made the experiment easier, Higgins said that wasn’t the goal. He wanted to create a population that mirrored the “typical unit” in the facility to show that such an arrangement could work in other pods as well.

Based on the successes in ward H, the experimental housing arrangement was to be expanded with an additional module that could accommodate 79 prisoners, almost 70% more than the 49 in ward H.

Higgins directed his harshest criticism at some Labor Party members Pulaski County Quorum Court. He said that dealing with mental health issues in prison is of great concern and that he has been trying for years to get approval and funding for additional mental health services, but the request has not gained much traction because some members of the Quorum Court do not want to spend the money on people who are not their voters.” Higgins also said he asked to use federal American Rescue Plan funds to expand mental health programs in 2022 but was denied. Even after Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde approved additional mental health resources, Higgins said, MPs would not allocate funding for it.

Committee co-chair at last week’s legislative hearing Representative Mark Berry (R-Ozark) asked whether certain funds from production manufacturers were “used to purchase another set of 21-inch chrome rims,” ​​apparently in reference to a 2020 audit that detailed “wheels/rims” purchased for the vehicle sheriff’s office. Contrary to Berry’s insinuations, the vehicle in question was one the sheriff’s office takes to schools and events as part of its junior deputy program, Higgins said. They packaged and equipped it to make it stand out to children and increase interest in the program.

Higgins was also asked why he suddenly stopped answering lawmakers’ questions last week and then held his own news conference a week later. He said he was already planning to hold a press conference even before the Legislature asked him to answer questions because he received a number of questions from the media. He answered lawmakers’ questions until they were “disrespectful,” at which point Higgins decided to stop the discussion, but that had no impact on his plan to hold a news conference today, he added.

During the press conference, Higgins was asked several different versions of the same question: What was his main conclusion from the experiment? His responses included creating a better and safer jail environment and showing respect for both inmates and deputies.

Asked more pointedly about the results of “Unlocked,” Higgins responded directly. “Creating culture works,” he said. “We can create a safer unit, pod by pod.”