JPs OK two measures related to Netflix jail show

LITTLE ROCK — The Pulaski County Quorum Court passed two measures Tuesday evening related to the production of a Netflix series filmed in the county jail last year as scrutiny of the agreement between the county sheriff and the production company continued.

One ordinance presents Sheriff Eric Higgins with 40 questions about the agency’s participation in the production to be answered within five business days, while the other allocated an additional $150,000 to the county attorney’s budget for hiring outside legal counsel.

The appropriation ordinance comes less than one week after County Attorney Adam Fogleman in a letter to Higgins and Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde urged the sheriff to retain outside counsel.

If someone takes the position that Higgins acted outside of his authority as sheriff in signing an agreement with the production company, Lucky 8 TV Inc., then it would be a conflict of interest for Fogleman to represent Higgins, the attorney wrote.

Hyde takes just that position on the production, which is set to premiere April 10 as “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment,” he said.

“[It’s] an illegal contract,” Hyde said after the Quorum Court meeting Tuesday. “There’s no disputing that. It doesn’t matter what they thought it was. It’s a contract.”

Higgins was not at the meeting, although many sheriff’s office employees including a chief deputy were. Hyde said Higgins isn’t always at the meetings.

Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Kristin Knox said Higgins would have to review the actions taken in the meeting before commenting.

The raised allowance for outside legal counsel is on top of the $15,000 outlined in the 2024 budget, Hyde said before the vote.

The second ordinance, which has an emergency clause which makes it effective immediately after it passes the court and is signed by Hyde, presents questions from justices of the peace and constituents, its text states. It was sponsored by 10 of the justices of the peace.

It includes questions about payments related to the production, participating employees and inmates, if any injuries or deaths occurred and more.

One of the questions referring to the show’s premise of depicting an “experiment” with allowing inmates more freedom, asks for the data collected, what academic organization was conducting the research and when the findings will be available for peer review.

The sheriff’s office received no compensation other than $1,000 per day of filming to offset costs, Higgins said last week. That amount is outlined in the signed agreement between Higgins and Lucky 8, which Higgins denied is a legally binding contract.

However, a sheriff’s office memo that surfaced last week prompted Knox to acknowledge two deputies who were paid to work off-duty security for the production at a rate of $40 per hour. Those deputies had been paid, Knox said last week, even though Lucky 8 had not yet paid the check for the daily rate, indicating the compensation was outside of the signed agreement.

Higgins intends to put all of the compensation from the daily payment into the county’s general fund, he said last week.

Both of the ordinances passed with with 12 justices of the peace in favor. District 4 Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood voted against both ordinances, and one justice of the peace was absent.

Separately, Tuesday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders weighed in on the controversy, and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he was “investigating the matter” but had no other comment.

“Turning our prisons into a free-for-all all reality show is dangerous and insulting to our brave law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line to apprehend violent criminals,” Sanders told conservative news outlet The Daily Wire.

The twin ordinances are the next step in the county’s investigation into the series’ production, Hyde said.

“No decisions have been made at this time” on taking further action, Hyde said Tuesday night.

The production is concerning because “we don’t want to be embarrassed or mocked on TV,” Hyde said.

Lucky 8’s agreement with Higgins was “totally one-sided” and places all risk on the county, said District 13 Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers, who took the position last week that the additional $40 per hour payments to deputies may be illegal if they were on top of regular compensation.

Higgins approached Fogleman about the production several years ago, Stowers said, but Lucky 8 did not agree to the terms the county wanted, leading to the agreement falling through. After that, Stowers said, Higgins went and signed the agreement himself, which he may not have been legally permitted to do.

If Higgins does not answer the questions in the ordinance, Stowers said, the court will be able to refer the matter to the prosecuting attorney.

The ordinance seeking answers to questions about the production goes further than a request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, Fogleman said, because the Quorum Court’s collective authority requires the sheriff to answer questions in addition to providing documentation.

Fogelman said the fiveday deadline also gives Higgins more time than an open-records request, which requires authorities to produce documents immediately unless they are in active use or storage, in which case they must be produced within three working days.