Parole agency chief leaving after less than eight months in position

Community Correction Director Kevin Murphy announced his retirement in an email to employees Friday, less than eight months after he was confirmed in the job overseeing the state’s 64,000 parolees and probationers.

Murphy led the state’s offender-supervision agency as it merged with the larger state prison system into a single department earlier this year. At the same time, the number of offenders under supervision has swelled as a result of a 2017 law aimed at easing prison crowding.

When the Department of Community Correction was merged with the Department of Correction on July 1, Murphy was passed over for a Cabinet-level post atop the combined agency by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Hutchinson instead promoted Wendy Kelley, former director of the Correction Department.

Murphy’s tenure at Community Correction had also been marked by reports that criticized his stewardship of nonprofit groups and raised concerns about conflicts of interest.

Murphy, 59, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Monday that he had been considering retirement for more than a year, and the decision was unrelated to work.

“I’ve had a truly wonderful career,” Murphy said. “I’m at the age where I want to enjoy my retirement.”

A 41-year veteran in corrections work, Murphy took over the Community Correction Department on an interim basis in July 2018 after the previous director, Sheila Sharp, was fired. Sharp has claimed that her ouster came after she defied Hutchinson’s orders and requested a budget increase to hire 99 new parole and probation officers — an assertion that was never denied by the governor’s office.

Murphy served on an interim basis for nearly six months, in which time he secured funding for about a third of the positions Sharp had sought. He was officially named as director by the Board of Corrections in January.

Murphy said he had not made up his mind about retiring when the board interviewed him. He said he did not tell the board that his tenure might last less than a year. Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness said Monday that he was not sure if that information would have made a difference in the board’s decision, calling Murphy “the best candidate at the time.”

“Kevin was a very, very good director and we worked really well together,” Magness said. “I hate to see him go.”

Murphy’s retirement will be effective Nov. 1. Magness said the board will meet Sept. 24 to decide whether to hire from within the agency or search outside it.

Since last summer, the number of offenders supervised by the state has grown by about 3,000, according to agency reports. About half of that increase is in people on probation, which Murphy attributed to the ongoing effects of Act 423 of 2017. Lawmakers hoped the act would divert offenders to supervision instead of prison.

The law also has resulted in fewer lockups of offenders who violate the terms of their probation or parole, the agency has said.

“Judges are using probation more than ever, which is a good thing,” Murphy said Monday.

In addition to hiring new officers, Murphy has sought to lower caseloads by altering the formula used to calculate those averages. Under the new formula, offenders who are considered “inactive” or in jail for a few months are not counted in an officer’s caseload.

Both the efforts to reduce prison crowding and parole/ probation officer caseloads are the results of a 2016 task force report that was commissioned because of the growing prison population.

Three reports were critical of Murphy’s work for outside agencies.

The New York Times wrote about a nonprofit called Mulligan Road that was run by Murphy and other Community Correction administrators. The program used parolees to demolish houses in Pine Bluff before it was shuttered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for failing to adequately protect workers from asbestos exposure.

A few months later, Legislative Audit suggested that Murphy had created conflicts of interest by collecting an outside salary from an employee association he ran while serving as deputy director of Community Correction. Murphy said he stopped accepting the salary from the employee association last year and fully stepped away from that position around February.

In May, the state Insurance Department released a report finding that Murphy and the nonprofit association, the Arkansas Association of Correctional Employees Trust, had illegally sold insurance benefits to members without a license. The association was ordered to forfeit nearly half a million dollars that it had collected from members and have them transferred onto state employee insurance plans.

Murphy defended his outside work as part of an effort to assist correctional employees. Two weeks after the Insurance Department report became public, the governor announced his Cabinet picks.

Murphy said his decision to retire was not the result of being passed over for the promotion.

“I want this transformation and [Kelley] and the Department of Correction to succeed,” he said.

In a statement Monday, Hutchinson said he would work with Kelley and the Board of Corrections to identify Murphy’s replacement. Under an organizational chart approved by the board in July, that successor will report to Kelley.

The chief deputy director position at Community Correction is vacant. A spokeswoman for the agency said the highest-ranking officials are Deputy Director of Residential Services James Banks and Deputy Director of Parole and Probation Services Jerry Bradshaw.