The Arkansas Department of Correction officially dedicated its first re-entry facility for male inmates Wednesday, naming the unit in honor of a prison corporal who was stabbed to death while on duty in 2012.
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The Barbara Ester Unit, which formerly operated as the department's intake facility in Pine Bluff, currently houses 380 inmates, and an expansion under construction will add another 200 beds by 2017. The facility is intended to help inmates re-enter society after their release from prison.
The minimum-security unit began housing inmates again last year. It includes a veterans' barracks holding former members of all five branches of the armed services, with exclusive access to their own yard decorated with American and service flags.
Inmates at the unit will have access to anger management and substance abuse classes, as well as employment skills training, according to a press release from the Correction Department.
A library in the unit is equipped with 11 computers that inmates can use for legal research and to search for jobs. The nearby bookshelves were empty Wednesday, but state lawmakers, prison officials and Ester's family were told during a tour that the books had been ordered and were on their way.
Between 50 and 60 inmates a day are working on construction at the unit, including an area that will act as an infirmary for inmates who have short-term illnesses.
"I think it's much needed and I'm happy to see it in the Pine Bluff area," said state Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff. "I think it provides a transition for those who are leaving incarceration into the free world."
After the tour, the Board of Corrections held its monthly meeting at a conference space inside.
In an early morning ceremony held in the prison chapel, Ester's daughter, Fannie Dukes Nichols, described her mother as a dedicated prison guard who only took two vacations in 12 years on the job.
"She was afraid to be by herself" at home and while driving her car, Nichols said, "but she loved to go behind those bars to be with those inmates."
Ester, a 47-year-old property officer, was killed on Jan. 20, 2012, by a prisoner at the East Arkansas Unit who stabbed her twice with a sharpened piece of metal after Ester tried to confiscate the inmate's nonregulation shoes.
Metro on 08/25/2016