LITTLE ROCK — As part of a settlement in a lawsuit, the Arkansas Department of Correction agreed to move an inmate at a state prison from a maximum-security single-man cell into the general prison population.
Terrance McKnight, 35, argued in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in October 2010, that he was being unfairly kept in administrative segregation at the East Arkansas Regional Unit at Brickeys because he had been caught having oral sex with another inmate during an earlier prison stint, in December 2008.
Under a policy meant to prevent prison rape, inmates who are found engaging in sexual activity are separated from the rest of the population. McKnight argued, however, that other inmates who committed similar offenses were returned to the general population.
McKnight began his most recent prison stint in April 2010, after he was found to have violated his parole on charges of aggravated robbery, burglary and theft. Although he was initially assigned to the general population, he was moved to the maximum-security section of the prison in May 2010, after he was accused of giving a blade to another inmate.
McKnight said in the lawsuit that he had remained in administrative segregation because of the sex-related rule violation from December 2008.
He was returned to the general population Sept. 30, the same day the settlement was signed. The department did not admit any wrongdoing under the settlement. U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. dismissed the lawsuit Thursday in light of the settlement.
Correction Department spokesman Dina Tyler said officials had planned to move McKnight into the general population anyway. Prison staff regularly review the record of inmates who are kept in administrative segregation to determine whether they can be safely returned to the general population, she said.
“We didn’t, obviously, admit any liability, and there wasn’t any money involved,” she said. “It was just a management move that was going to happen anyway.”
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 10/26/2011