Controversy brewing over legality of Netflix series featuring Pulaski County Jail
PULASKI COUNTY, Ark. – A Netflix docuseries, filmed inside the Pulaski County jail is catching a lot of people’s attention. It’s also stirring up some controversy.
“Unlocked: A Jail Experiment,” is set to debut April 10, but now the legality of the series is being questioned.
This was shot in the jail last year, but the trailer came out just last week, which was a huge surprise, for both the county judge and other county officials.
Sheriff Eric Higgins said the experiment was all to see how to improve jails.
“We’ve seen some things that are positive that we can implement,” Higgins said.
Judge Barry Hyde says the public has raised concerns about this, ever since the trailer aired last week.
“People are very upset because they believe this is the next installment of gang banging in Little Rock which was probably the worst PR for central Arkansas ever,” Hyde said.
The docuseries explores what happens when inmates are given more independence rather than being kept under lock and key.
Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde says there were discussions about a film crew coming in late 2021 and early 2022, but he didn’t know that the film crew had already shot the docuseries until last week.
“The attorney’s office had about a thousand questions and cautions and advised that this wasn’t a good idea,” Hyde said.
The judge says if Pulaski County Sheriff Eric Higgins signed a contract with Lucky 8 production, the film crew that shot the docuseries, Sheriff Higgins acted illegally because only the county judge can sign contracts on behalf of the county, but Sheriff Higgins says he didn’t sign a contract, saying he believes he controls who comes in and out of the jail.
“I recognize I can’t sign a contract, what we did was a location release, and we looked at it as a memorandum of understanding,” Higgins said.
The sheriff said the location release permitted him to review the video, and he could take out what he wanted too, and as far as Sheriff Higgins knows, the docuseries is still going to air.
The judge said as far as legal action, he is still gathering the facts.
“I’m not going to automatically assume that the sheriff was up to no good,” Hyde said.
Sheriff Higgins says he stands by his decision to let the film crew in and mentions while the trailer looks all negative, he has watched the series and encourages everyone to watch it all.
“We always have concerns but I think at the end of the day, I think it was the right thing to do,” Higgins said.
There was money involved in this. The Sheriff says that they were paid $1000 a day that the crew was there filming. He says the money will be sent to the county general fund. The Sheriff says the check has not come yet but is expecting it within the next week.
The attorney for Pulaski County, Adam Fogleman, was in negotiations with the producers in 2022, but those contract negotiations ended unsuccessfully.
He says the sheriff’s agreement afterwards created a potential conflict informing both the Sheriff and County Judge they may need to seek outside counsel if this matter goes to the courts.
His emails to both the sheriff and the judge from the county attorney are linked below.
Fogleman’s emails to both the sheriff and the judge
The Location Release was signed by Higgins.
Prosecuting Attorney Will Jone also released a statement saying:
“Our office values its partnership with every law enforcement agency. Like many other Arkansans, we were unaware of any video production inside the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility. We are in the process of requesting and reviewing information about the production.”
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