{"id":149635,"date":"2025-08-16T04:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T04:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/149635\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T04:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T04:43:12","slug":"former-police-chiefs-daring-escape-from-arkansas-prison-exposes-lax-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/149635\/","title":{"rendered":"Former police chief’s daring escape from Arkansas prison exposes lax security"},"content":{"rendered":"

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) \u2014 A former police chief known as the \u201cDevil in the Ozarks\u201d<\/a> spent months planning his escape from an Arkansas prison, and said lax security in the kitchen where he worked allowed the convicted murderer to gather the supplies he needed, an internal review by prison officials released Friday said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Corrections\u2019 critical incident review of Grant Hardin\u2019s May 25 escape from the Calico Rock prison provides the most detailed description so far of his planning and the issues that allowed him to walk out of the facility.<\/p>\n

Hardin was captured 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) northwest of the Calico Rock prison on June 6. Authorities said he escaped by donning an outfit he designed to look like a law enforcement uniform. <\/p>\n

Hardin, who worked in the prison\u2019s kitchen, said he spent six months planning his escape and used black Sharpie markers and laundry he found lying around the kitchen to create the fake uniform, according to the report. Hardin fashioned a fake badge using the lid of a can.<\/p>\n

\u201cHardin stated he would hide the clothes and other items he was going to need in the bottom of a trash can in the kitchen due to no one ever shaking it down,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

Two prison employees have been fired<\/a> for procedure violations that led to Hardin\u2019s escape. They include a kitchen employee who allowed Hardin on a back dock unsupervised and a tower guard who unlocked the back gate that Hardin walked through without confirming his identity. Several other employees have been suspended<\/a> and one demoted, lawmakers were told this week.<\/p>\n

The kitchen\u2019s staff was \u201cvery lax on security,\u201d Hardin told investigators, allowing him to gather what he needed for his escape. Hardin said he didn\u2019t have any help from staff or other inmates. Hardin had constructed a ladder from wooden pallets in case he needed to scale the prison fence but didn\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Hardin) stated when he walked up to the gate, he just directed the officer to \u2018open the gate,\u2019 and he did,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

After he escaped from the prison, Hardin survived on food he had smuggled out of the prison along with distilled water from his CPAP machine. Hardin also drank creek water and ate berries, bird eggs and ants. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe said his plan was to hide in the woods for six months if need be and begin moving west out of the area,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

Hardin, a former police chief in the small town of Gateway, near the Arkansas-Missouri border, is serving lengthy sentences for murder and rape<\/a>. He was the subject of the TV documentary \u201cDevil in the Ozarks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report is one of two reviews into Hardin\u2019s escape, which is also being investigated by the Arkansas State Police. A legislative subcommittee has also been holding hearings about the escape. <\/p>\n

Republican Rep. Howard Beaty, who co-chairs the Legislative Council\u2019s Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions Subcommittee, said the panel hoped to discuss both reports with officials at a hearing next month.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Ben Gilmore, who sits on the panel, said he didn\u2019t think the department\u2019s review took a thorough enough look at the systemic issues that enabled Hardin\u2019s escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have focused on the final failure instead of all of the things that led up to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The report also cites confusion among corrections officials in the early stages of Hardin\u2019s escape about which law enforcement agencies had been notified, the report says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is obvious there was a lot of confusion during the beginning stages of opening the command center and of notifications being made,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

Hardin had been misclassified and shouldn\u2019t have been held at the primarily medium-security prison, according to the review. After he was captured, Hardin was moved to a maximum-security prison. He has pleaded not guilty to escape charges, and his trial is set for November.<\/p>\n

Hardin\u2019s custody classification hadn\u2019t been reviewed since October 2019, the report says. <\/p>\n

The Department of Corrections\u2019 review says officials had taken several steps since Hardin\u2019s escape, including removing the electric locks from the gates to prevent someone from walking out without an officer present. <\/p>\n

The report also calls for additional cameras after finding a blind spot on the dock Hardin used, and for any \u201cshakedown\u201d searches for contraband to include mechanical rooms and side rooms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) \u2014 A former police chief known as the \u201cDevil in the Ozarks\u201d spent months…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[63738,5027,88032,171,57,88031,4221,88033,2936,362,9540,21719,50,2938,10409,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-149635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ar-state-wire","10":"tag-arkansas","11":"tag-ben-gilmore","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-grant-hardin","15":"tag-homicide","16":"tag-howard-beaty","17":"tag-law-enforcement","18":"tag-legal-proceedings","19":"tag-missouri","20":"tag-mo-state-wire","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-prisons","23":"tag-sexual-assault","24":"tag-u-s-news","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115036619102917662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}