Netflix Unlocked series sparks more controversy as Arkansas officials probe $60k payment made to sheriff - as victims families slams production

Arkansas officials are probing a $60,000 payment made by producers of Netflix's controversial Unlocked docuseries, as the mother of one of the star's alleged victims slams the project.

Unlocked: A Jail Experiment follows an experiment by Pulaski County Sheriff Eric Higgins that sees the inmates allowed to seemingly roam free inside the Pulaski County jail in Little Rock after their cells are unlocked for days.

The Pulaski County Government has asked for more details of how the production came to be, particularly the agreement between Higgins and the production company, Lucky 8.

Higgins has told officials that he handed the $60,000 check to the finance director and the comptroller's office on March 28. He was not personally paid for his appearance.

Additionally, two staff members in the jail were paid for working off-duty hours, at $40 per hour.  The sheriff says this was the only compensation given to participants, as reported by KATV. 

Arkansas officials are probing a $60,000 payment made by producers of Netflix 's controversial Unlocked docuseries 

Hailey Shackelford says she has been unable to finish the show, which features inmate Jordan Parkinson, 20, who was initially charged with her son Jadon Shackleford’s murder

The capital murder charges were later dropped and Parkinson is now free 

Unlocked: A Jail Experiment follows an experiment by Pulaski County Sheriff Eric Higgins that sees the inmates allowed to seemingly roam free inside the Pulaski County jail in Little Rock 

The probe comes as a mother speaks of the pain of seeing her son's once-accused killer on the Netflix show.

Hailey Shackelford says she has been unable to finish the show, which features inmate Jordan Parkinson, 20, who was initially charged with her son Jadon Shackleford’s murder. However, the capital murder charges against Parkinson were later dropped and he is now free.

'I’ve started it and stopped it many times,' the mother told Fox16. 

'I understand they’re trying to make a show but there are real people involved and real people that are hurting seeing one of the people that murdered my son doing an experiment and getting gifts and free phone calls and all this stuff when I can never call my child again.'

Shackelford said that she does not 'think someone that’s done such a violent crime should get any sort of reward,' adding that 'it does something to you seeing someone that took your child from you.'

The grieving mother told the local outlet she wishes she would have been told about the show before it aired.

'If it’s hurting me, I know it’s doing the same to other families,' she said.

Amid the controversy, sheriff Higgins has also told officials that despite the show being advertised as showing 'no locks' and 'no officers,' that was not really the case.

Jadon Shackleford , 21, was killed in a drug deal gone wrong in 2022 in Little Rock

Some of the three gallons of prison wine the inmates made in their cells where cameras couldn't see

Instead, there was an officer in the unite near two secured doors, and another monitoring cameras in the unit. 

The inmates who starred in the show were all asked if they wanted t participate, and vetted by the production company and staff. No sexual offenders were allowed in the cast. 

The eight-episode series documented 46 inmates including 13 accused murderers, along with drug dealers and wife beaters, in Block H in February to April 2023.

Pulaski County Detention Facility is a remand center where inmates are locked up until they face trial or make bail. Some who appeared on the show were later convicted and sent to jail elsewhere and two were acquitted.

They included Raymond 'AJ' Lovett, 24, who was in December jailed for life without parole for shooting dead Leighton Whitfield, 21, as he visited his fiancée in hospital.

Pulaski County Detention Facility is a remand center where inmates are locked up until they face trial or make bail

Despite the prisoners eventually achieving tentative harmony, learning to work together, and creating a system to run the block, there was plenty of drama.

Several fist fights were caught on camera where inmates punched each other in the face, but they were usually broken up by other prisoners in a few seconds.

However, in the last few days of the experiment a new inmate joined the block and was caught cheating at cards, enraging the losing player.

The pair agreed to settle the score in a cell out of sight of the cameras, but instead the card cheater was jumped by three and viciously beaten.

The beating almost derailed the entire experiment, which would have put the inmates in lockdown up to 23 hours a day. 

Higgins is a Democrat and longtime supporter of prison reform, introducing programs after his 2019 election that help inmates re-enter society.

These programs caught the attention of Lucky 8, a production company that made several other jail-focused documentaries, which approached him in 2021.

Higgins was frustrated with inmates often being locked down for 23 hours a day due to staff shortages, especially during Covid.