2 Arkansas Prison Workers Are Fired in Wake of Convicted Murderer's Escape

New York Times

11-07-2025

Two Arkansas prison employees have been fired after they unknowingly helped a former police chief convicted of murder and rape escape from a high-security prison in May, dressed in a fake law enforcement uniform, officials said.
One of the employees was a kitchen supervisor who allowed the inmate, Grant Hardin, onto a loading dock where prisoners were not supposed to go unsupervised, Arkansas prison officials said. The other was a guard in a prison tower who buzzed open a gate and let Mr. Hardin walk out of the prison, without checking to see if he was actually a law enforcement official, officials said.
Both employees were fired for having violated prison policy, Benny Magness, the chairman of the Arkansas Board of Corrections, told state lawmakers at a hearing on Thursday. Their names have not been publicly released.
'You had two people, unfortunately, if either of them would have said, 'No,' if any of them would have stopped, Mr. Hardin wouldn't have gotten out,' Mr. Magness said. He described it as a case of 'human error' and not intentional malfeasance.
Mr. Hardin, 56, who worked in the prison kitchen, exploited his job there to carry out his escape from the prison in Calico Rock, Ark., on May 25, officials said. He was captured on June 6, less than two miles from the prison, ending an intense manhunt.
On the day of his escape, he asked the kitchen supervisor if he could go onto the loading dock to clean out a cage that held cleaning chemicals, officials said.
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