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The Arkansas Department of Correction will close the Pine Bluff Diagnostics Unit in January. That’s the bad news. The 175 unit employees who live in and near Pine Bluff will not lose their jobs when the facility closes. That’s the good news for a community that has seen too many closures in the private and public sectors in recent years. The state Board of Corrections on Tuesday approved closing the 30-year-old Pine Bluff unit and opening the new 744-bed facility for special needs inmates at the Ouachita River Correctional Unit in Malvern. The department will provide free daily shuttle service to and from the Malvern unit for the 175 employees who live here. The free service will last one year and after that the workers will be charged a small fee for the shuttle. Employees who elect not to transfer can apply for a job at any of the department’s six other units in the Pine Bluff area that have vacancies. The exact day of the move for employees and some 400 special needs inmates — those who are sick or elderly — has not been determined. Eight people will remain at their Pine Bluff complex because their jobs serve functions at two other units. Corizon, department medical provider, will relocate its staff of nearly 50 to the Malvern unit. The nearly $60 million facility has been open for more than a year and currently houses nearly 960 inmates. The special needs wing, which includes a 72-bed hospital and a 40-bed special services area, has remained closed for lack of funding. The Board of Corrections elected to use the $18 million that now funds the operation of the unit here to operate the new special needs unit in Malvern, which has more than 370 additional beds.
Top caller
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Antonio Jones of White Hall won the World’s Championship Duck Calling contest last Saturday at the 76th annual competition at the Wings over the Prairie Festival in Stuttgart. Jones, 25, who almost drove his mother crazy practicing his duck calling as a youth at their home in Redfield, won an $8,000 prize, championship ring and $15,000 in merchandise for his calling talents. He has been competing in duck calling competitions since he was 12, but his best previous finish in the contest was fourth place in 2003-2004 in the Junior World Championship. His mother, Sandra Jones of Redfield, acknowledged her son grew up with a passion for duck hunting, noting that while other youth his age were playing basketball and football, he was practicing his duck calls.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
On appeal
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The owner of Pine Bluff’s Three Gables nightclub in Pine Bluff that had its liquor permit yanked following a Nov. 13 fatal shooting in the club’s parking lot argued Tuesday that the permit should be restored because the incident was not something the club could have prevented. An attorney for the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board conducted a violation hearing on the Three Gables, which recently had its permit to serve alcohol suspended temporarily by ABC Director Michael Langley pending action by the ABC Board. The board is expected to act on Dec. 14. Two brothers have been charged with capital murder in the slaying of Walter Ashley Jr. and three counts each of first-degree battery in connection with the non-fatal shootings of three other people at the club that morning. Three Gables owner Stacey Knott said her club has been unfairly singled out. The club is on probation for two incidents that occurred in September 2010. Another homicide occurred outside the club in 2007. Police officers have been called to the club more than 140 times this year to investigate reported a attempted rape, illegal possession of firearms by felons, disorderly conduct, discharge of firearms and other crimes.