Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday he has “100 percent” confidence in the state prisons director despite a trio of violent episodes at two facilities, including an inmate who died after he was involved in a July assault.
The governor spoke to a cluster of reporters after addressing the Association of Arkansas Counties Annual Conference at the Little Rock Marriott Hotel. Asked if he still had confidence in Department of Correction Director Wendy Kelley, Hutchinson said he "absolutely" did.
"One hundred percent," he said. "She’s doing a great job. ... She’s good, she’s devoted, she follows my initiatives, she’s tough, she’s the right prison director for us, absolutely."
Hutchinson said he is meeting with Kelley later Friday for an overview of the three recent disturbances.
On Thursday morning, prisoner John Demoret, who was serving a 10-year term for manslaughter, was pronounced dead at a Malvern-area hospital after he was transported there from the Ouachita River Correctional Unit, according to prisons spokesman Solomon Graves.
Demoret's cause of death is being investigated by the state medical examiner.
The 25-year-old was involved in a July 28 assault at the Tucker Unit, Graves said. After the attack, he was transferred to the prison hospital at the Ouachita lockup.
An Arkansas State Police spokesman said an earlier investigation of the assault was now considered a homicide case.
Two altercations also took place recently at the state's Maximum Security Unit in Tucker, which is separate from the Tucker Unit.
On Monday, six inmates overpowered guards, detained some staff members and took control of a small portion of the prison for about three hours, authorities said. Those inmates reportedly grabbed keys as well as a Taser during the takeover.
And July 22, two guards were injured as they responded to a stabbing in the solitary confinement area. Three warning shots were later fired.
State police are investigating the July assault and subsequent death as well as both disturbances at the Maximum Security Unit.
“I’m concerned about any deaths in prison as well as any breakout of violence there,” Hutchinson said Friday. “That’s one of the reasons we have state police training as backups.”
He said Kelley spoke with him previously about troubles with staffing and retention levels of prison employees. Staff vacancies across Arkansas prisons were at 12.95 percent this year, according to July data.
The employment shortfall "is a concern," Hutchinson said.
"Whenever you have a 3.4 percent unemployment rate, there’s a lot of job opportunities that are out there," he said. "That’s a challenge for us, but it’s a challenge that we have to meet.”
Hutchinson said he plans to continue examining the issue, adding that it’s often a “highly risky situation that those guards are in."
"And so much of that comes down to training, and I think that Director Kelley is doing an outstanding job with all of that," he said. "Some of those are just unavoidable in the prison environment."
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.