State prison board rejects request to add beds; corrections will add them anyways, official says

A spokeswoman for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that the state corrections secretary would move forward with a plan to add hundreds more beds to state prisons after a state board declined for a second time to approve them. The statement came after the Board of Corrections on Friday agreed to add 124 beds to the Barbara Ester Unit in Pine Bluff, but balked at adding 368 beds at two other prisons -- the McPherson Unit in Newport and the Maximum Security Unit in Jefferson County -- as Corrections...