Sheriff faces questions from Arkansas lawmakers over 'Netflix' sequence filmed at county jail
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas lawmakers on Tuesday raised questions on a sheriff’s determination to permit a Netflix documentary sequence to be filmed on the county jail, with one critic saying the transfer exploited inmates.
Pulaski County Sheriff Eric Higgins defended the choice to permit the sequence, “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment” to be filmed on the county jail. The eight-episode sequence, which premiered final month, highlights a program giving some inmates extra freedom on the Little Rock facility.
The choice has prompted scrutiny from native and state officers, who mentioned they weren’t conscious of the sequence till shortly earlier than its premiere. The sequence focuses on a six-week experiment that gave inmates in a single cellblock extra freedom by unlocking their cell doorways. Higgins mentioned he didn’t strategy Netflix or Fortunate 8, the manufacturing firm that filmed it, in regards to the sequence.
“I took motion to make sure that we’ve got a reentry program to assist those that are booked into our facility to return out and be higher people,” Higgins informed members of the Joint Efficiency Assessment Committee.
Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang mentioned he would not have an issue with the sheriff’s reentry program or attempting one thing new to handle recidivism. However he mentioned he was involved with it being the main focus of a present, and questioned the way it may very well be thought-about an experiment if it was being filmed.
“I believe it is an exploitation of your prisoners that you just allowed a movie crew to return in,” Dismang mentioned.
One other Republican lawmaker mentioned he was fearful about what the present would do to the state’s popularity, evaluating it to a 1994 HBO documentary about gangs in Little Rock.
“For the general public that watched this docuseries, that is the primary time they’ve ever been uncovered to Pulaski County, or maybe to the state of Arkansas,” Rep. David Ray mentioned. “I fear in regards to the model harm that our state sustains from this being the primary notion of our state to different individuals.”
Pulaski County Decide Barry Hyde — the county’s prime elected administrator — mentioned he wasn’t conscious of the sequence till he noticed a trailer earlier than its premiere. Hyde has mentioned that the settlement between the sheriff and the manufacturing firm was unlawful as a result of Hyde did not signal it. The county has since returned a $60,000 test from the manufacturing firm that filmed the sequence.
Higgins, a Democrat who was first elected in 2018 and is the county’s first Black sheriff, has had the backing of some neighborhood members. The Little Rock chapter of the NAACP has supported Higgins’ determination, and supporters of the sheriff crammed a committee room for Tuesday’s listening to.
Democratic Sen. Linda Chesterfield mentioned Higgins’ supporters are searching for “somebody to offer humane therapy for individuals who have been handled inhumanely.”
“We’re viewing this by completely different lenses, and it is necessary we respect the lenses by which we view it,” Chesterfield mentioned.
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