Following the call from Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders for Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness of Gassville to resign from his position, the board held a special telephone conference meeting early Friday evening. At the conclusion of the meeting, Magness released the following statement:“I would like to make a statement concerning the Governor’s request for my resignation.“Since 1999, I have worked with every Governor and have enjoyed a good working relationship with each one of them. We have worked together to achieve their goals and do what’s best for the Department of Corrections and the people of Arkansas. I and the Board stand ready to do the same for Governor Sanders Administration. My request last evening for help from the Governor by asking for a limited number of National Guardsmen to supplement the opening of the 124 at the Tucker Reentry Center was a sincere and thoughtful request and no way political on my behalf. Again, the Guardsmen would be used in a supportive role only supplement the opening of the beds requested. In fact, the Arkansas Guard has been used in other cases when needed by the Department of Correction. The request does not seek anything more of Governor Sanders that has been asked of governors in other states facing shortages.
“I would also like to make it clear that the Board of Corrections has approved the beds at Ester, North Central, Malvern and McPherson Units.
“The only beds expansion the board has denied is the 124 beds at the Tucker Reentry Center. The two prisons next to the Tucker Reentry Center is Tucker Max 45% short on staff and Tucker 60% short on staff and could not assist in staffing at Tucker Reentry Center.
“On the Governor’s request that I resign my answer is I will not resign.”
After the release of the statement, Magness spoke exclusively with KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News about the meeting and about his request of National Guardsmen to supplement the governor’s request opening 124 beds at the Tucker Reentry Center. He says the Guardsmen would not be in direct supervision of the inmates.
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In his role as board chairman, Magness has worked with every governor in Arkansas since he was appointed to the position by Mike Huckabee, the father of current Governor Sanders. Magness says his relationship with Sanders is understandably strained, but he reiterated the willingness of him and the board to work with her and her administration on the issue.
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Magness did commend the governor for her initiative to have a new 3,000-bed facility constructed. He says it’s going to take time to get the project completed, and the ability to have it properly staffed depends on its location.
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Magness also had a message to the corrections staff around Arkansas in which he expressed his gratitude for their service.
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Check out the full interview below.
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Full transcript of Benny Magness’ interview with KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot’s Heather Loftis
LOFTIS: Mr. Magness, can you tell us about the meeting tonight?
MAGNESS: Our telephone conference meeting tonight was fairly lengthy. It almost took an hour. We had several items on the agenda, and some of them were just clean-ups. We don’t normally disclose what we talk in executive session about, but because we’ve been accused of violating the executive session rules, we went ahead and put it open in tonight’s meeting. What was discussed in those executive sessions of Dec. 8 and Dec. 14.
LOFTIS: And what items did you discuss tonight?
MAGNESS: Well, in those deals, we explained what we discussed on Dec. 8 and 14 in executive session. And it was mainly dominated by the performance of Mr. Secretary Joe Profiri and what our actions might or could not be. And that’s when we sought out for some outside counsel to give us some guidelines on the employment issue for where we stood at the board with Secretary Profiri.
LOFTIS: Of course, over the last month, there has been a back and forth between you, sir, and the governor’s office. With the governor’s office requesting that more beds be opened up in our state prisons to secure the overcrowding in our county prisons. You have spoken at length many times saying that we do not currently have, from a state level, have the staff to support opening up more beds. Earlier this week you requested the National Guardsmen be enlisted to help with one particular unit, the Tucker unit, for some opening of beds, correct?
MAGNESS: Correct. Those guardsmen would only be used in supportive roles, not direct supervision of inmates, but in supportive roles, you know, like we have what you call rovers that drive around the units at night, and it’s like everybody in day, and like everyone knows that a lot of prisons have towers, guard towers. They would have been put in the guard towers. And then also put in the entry building. The supplement staff in the entry building. When people come, visitors come, or staff or vendor or something else might come in. But those supportive roles, if we could release them, we could easily then put them inside the Tucker Reentry Building. To open that bill and so that’s why we asked for them.
LOFTIS: There’s been numbers thrown around about the number of prisoners that they are trying to move from county jails into state prisons. Is that around 2,000?
MAGNESS: No, I’d have to look and see. I get a report every morning and I think it’s right around 1,500 right now. We have made some effort, but a lot of times, historically during the holidays, the courts, of course are not as active from Thanksgiving to after the first year, and the intake for inmates in the county jails goes down. So that’s the reason we’ve also moved about 400 beds, as in my response this afternoon, we okayed and moved the beds in North Central and Malvern and Ester, and we approved McPherson, but the building won’t be remodeled for about four months. And I think that’s the confusion sometimes that people think we didn’t approve McPherson, but we did. We just didn’t approve where he pulled the inmates from, county jail backup, or a place called Hawkins. So, it’s the same number of inmates almost, it’s just where we pull them from. But we did approve McPherson.
LOFTIS: Of course, Mr. Magness, you’ve served in this role since 1999 and have worked with several governors of the state of Arkansas. How would you describe your working relationship with Governor Sanders?
MAGNESS: I would rather say that it’s been strained at this point, of course, and somewhat that’s understandable in the position we’re in. I’d say it would say strained.
LOFTIS: So how do we move forward with this issue, sir?
MAGNESS: Well, the board, as I said in my statement, is willing to work with Governor Sanders and our administration. If she doesn’t want to meet with me, she can meet with one of the other board members, or one of us could meet with our staff. But we just have to start doing something. And there is some ideas that’s been floated by staff to try to help the staffing situation just like at McPherson, it’s 50 percent short. Well, we hope we can improve that 50 percent staff down before the four months is up. And we’ve got some initiatives going to go forward around Newport to see if we can do that. The main thing that people need to understand, this is not just an Arkansas problem. This is a national problem. A lot of states are struggling with staff to work in these prisons. It’s not an easy job, and we have to find some way to keep our staffing levels up, because it becomes unsafe for the staff, and it becomes unsafe for the inmates. And I have to say that it also could come unsafe for the public if we had some kind of a major issue at one of the prisons.
LOFTIS: Is it fair to say that many potential prison employees could make more money at the county level right now than they could at the state level?
MAGNESS: Well, some counties pay pretty well, but it’s not just the county. It’s the whole economy and industry a lot of industries had to increase their pay. There’s a lot of states around us that have increased their pay for their correctional staff, and we’re just going to have to look at some point…and it’s all of increasing the pay for the staff, but sometimes it’s not all about pay. We have been at some units on mandatory overtime. The staff just gets burned out.
LOFTIS: Sir, you have a unique perspective to this, of course, serving as the sheriff of Baxter County. Do you have the support of the Sheriff’s Association?
MAGNESS: I know the sheriffs are frustrated. And I’d say that you could call a lot of them, and they’d be supportive of corrections and supportive of the board and you’re going to find some. There are certain counties in the state that just got a lot of overcrowding issues, and a lot of times, it’s in the metropolitan areas. They haven’t kept up with their population, haven’t kept up with their jail by increasing it. And they’re just got problems and I feel for the sheriffs that have those problems. The other thing, we’ve been dealing with this for a long time. And I know Governor Sanders is committed to building a 3,000-bed prison, and I commend her on that, of course. But it’s just going to take a while to get that prison open.
LOFTIS: Mr. Magness, if you can’t currently staff the prisons that the state has, how will you staff a new facility?
MAGNESS: It depends on where you put it. If you look at our numbers, different facilities have different unemployment rates. You know, like, Calico’s at 12%, and Tucker’s at 60%. You know, the old saying that we need more prisons, we just don’t want them in our backyard sometimes creates a problem. A lot of the prisons that we have have been built in the south over the years to help with the economy, and they’re in wide open spaces or out of sight, say out of mind. But those areas, the population is dwindling. And so people have to travel farther to come to our work, the work of our units. So there’s several different issues that we need to look at. We put a new prison up. The bigger you get, the more efficient it is, but it also has other issues with contraband and different things by being large. And of course, the other is the staffing.
LOFTIS: You’ve spoken at length about the struggles that the staff of the Corrections Department currently has in the overtime that they’ve worked. As we move into the Christmas weekend and you have many staff members that are working overtime yet again, what is your message to them?
MAGNESS: I appreciate your service. Keep strong, do your job, and hopefully there’s some relief in the future. I know the board is behind them, and I know that as we move forward, I just hope we can work with the governor’s office to alleviate some of these issues.
LOFTIS: Ms. Magness, of course you said in your statement what your desire is, but for the record, what is your message to Governor Sanders as she asked earlier today for your resignation?
MAGNESS: I think I answered it in my statement. At this point, I will not resign.
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