Arkansas prison unit named for slain correctional officer

PINE BLUFF — The Arkansas Department of Correction will dedicate a facility that's being named in honor of a correctional officer who was killed in the line of duty.

The agency will formally dedicate the Barbara Ester Unit in Pine Bluff on Wednesday morning. The new unit is on the grounds of the Pine Bluff Complex and is the agency's first re-entry facility for inmates who are preparing to transition out of the prison system and into the community.

The unit also includes the department's first barracks designated for military veterans.

The unit is named for Cpl. Barbara Ester, who was stabbed to death by an inmate at the East Arkansas Unit in Brickeys in 2012.

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