An automated inmate classification system incorrectly listed a former police chief and convicted murderer as a medium risk prisoner for “five to six” years, Arkansas Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne told a legislative panel Monday.Grant Hardin, a convicted rapist and murderer who was once a state prison guard and small town police chief, should have been classified as high risk but was not, Payne told the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions Subcommittee.
Hardin, 56, escaped on May 25 from the North Central Unit at Calico Rock. He should have been housed at a higher security facility, Payne said. After his capture on June 6, he was moved to the Varner SuperMax Unit near Gould.
“Without an override, he should not have been there” at Calico Rock, Payne said.
Corrections officials previously told lawmakers the North Central Unit houses both serious felons and medium risk inmates. Payne said inmate classifications are reviewed “at least yearly” to ensure risk assessments are accurate. “The system calculates the score,” he said, and a high-security prisoner would remain at a medium facility only if “the warden, the deputy director or myself would have to override that to keep him there.”
Hardin escaped while working in the prison kitchen. A kitchen manager let him go to the loading dock unsupervised, violating policy. Using a marker, Hardin dyed a white prison uniform black to resemble a guard’s uniform, and a tower guard let him walk out without verifying his identity. He was found hiding in woods less than two miles away.
Subcommittee co-chair Rep. Howard Beaty Jr., R-Crossett, faulted Payne for not taking more responsibility. “When there’s a breakdown or a failure of my employees to execute the instructions and the plans that I have given, some of that responsibility falls on me,” Beaty said.
“I’m the person that’s in front of you today because I am overall responsible,” Payne replied.
Rep. Justin Gonzales, R-Okolona, asked if someone entered incorrect data into the system. “We don’t know yet how it didn’t calculate the score correctly,” Payne said, adding more misclassifications are likely.
Sen. Ben Gilmore, R-Crossett, questioned missing oversight. “Two things can be true people didn’t do their job, but also there should be checks and balances Where are those checks and balances?” Gilmore said. He was also “boggled” by how Hardin obtained markers. “I have no idea. I don’t think you can even explain that, because you didn’t last time,” he said.
Hardin is serving 80 years for murder and rape. He was convicted in 2017 of killing a man in Gateway and later pled guilty to two 1990s rape cases after DNA matched him to the crimes.
For the complete story visit this report from the Arkansas Advocate.
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