By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The state Board of Corrections voted today to ban maximum and medium security inmates from manufacturing guard uniforms after the May escape of two murderers who walked out of a prison unit dressed as prison guards and fled in a waiting car.

Also, prison officials briefed the panel on two new security measures, fingerprint scanners for visitors and identification badges with small radio chips for prison employees.

The prison board met at the Northeast Arkansas Community Correction Center at Osceola so members could attend the dedication of a new chapel at the facility.
The board has been under scrutiny in recent months because of a rash of serious incidents, including the May 29 escape from the Cummins Unit, the shooting death of a parolee at the Tucker Unit and a January incident in which an inmate nearly died after lying in his own feces over a weekend.

Today, board member Ken Jones, who chaired a task force that looked at ways to improve prison security, discussed the May escape and suggested the prison guard uniforms no longer be made at Cummins.

Convicted killers Calvin Adams and Jeffrey Grinder were captured days later in New York state. Three civilians were later charged with aiding the escape and six correctional officers were fired and one officer was suspended for five days for failing to fulfill their duties.

Prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler said the Board of Corrections approved moving the guard uniform manufacturing operation but did not set a timetable for opening a new shop.

“We will continue to make officer uniforms, just not at Cummins,” she said, adding inmate uniforms also will continue to be made within the prison system.
Jones also discussed a new ID card for employees, first at the Cummins Unit near Grady and later at the Varner maximum security unit.

The card will have imbedded in it a special microchip which will allow for monitoring employees both inside and outside the prisons. Tyler said the department is applying for a $544.662 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to pay for the cards.
“When the employee goes through a zone, it reads that and it pops onto a computer screen who is supposed to be there,” Tyler said.

“Other departments of corrections have been using this to track their inmate population and track their IDs,” she said. “What we want to do is use that technology to track our staff coming and going.”

The board also was briefed on a new fingerprint security device, which will keep track of all visitors and employees coming and going from the various prisons.
Tyler said the fingerprinting system should be operational at the Cummins and Tucker units within 90 days. It will be expanded to the other prison facilities, except for work-release centers, when funding allows, she said.

The fingerprinting system is already online for prison visitors at several prison facilities, including Varner, all three units at Pine Bluff, Delta Regional in Dermott and at both the men’s and women’s units at Newport, she said. The system is about go online at Tucker and Tucker max.

Tyler said keeping track of visitors is important because the system has about 78,000 registered visitors.

The entire biometric system is expected to cost about $1.5 million when completed, she said.