LITTLE ROCK – An Arkansas prison guard fired after an inmate was left in his own excrement for a weekend and nearly died had been previously fired for having stolen food and rehired by the prison system, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

Prison officials fired Sgt. Bobby Lunsford for the first time in 2002 for accepting Hot Pockets microwavable sandwiches stolen from a prison chaplain. They rehired him in 2003 as a guard at the state’s maximum-security Tucker Unit.

Lunsford’s 2002 termination letter, obtained by the AP through a state Freedom of Information Act request, highlights one of the prison system’s chief problems. With a 32 percent turnover rate, it struggles to find qualified and competent guards to patrol its 20 facilities spread across rural Arkansas. And sometimes, that means fired guards make their way back on to the payroll.

The issue comes up as lawmakers in Arkansas put the prison system in the spotlight after the inmate’s near death and several recent high-profile security incidents. In May, a pair of convicted murderers escaped from one unit after donning guard uniforms and walking out the front doors. Prison guards also recently shot to death a man they said tried to flee a contraband checkpoint outside the Tucker prison.

Since 2005, records show prison officials have fired more than 1,600 members of the security staff. That represents more than half of the guards employed by the prison system in a given year. Prison director Larry Norris described the turnover as normal in an industry where many workers realize they can’t handle the job after a few days.

“You can’t legislate integrity and you can’t measure integrity up front, especially with some of these youngsters,” Norris told lawmakers during a public hearing Tuesday. “You’ve got to let the rubber meet the road for a while and see how they’re going to react.”

Prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler said the department doesn’t keep track of how many employees it fired and later rehired.

Lunsford joined the state prison system in 1990. In an interview with the AP, Lunsford said he had no disciplinary problems for more than a decade and earned a promotion.

However, prison officials fired Lunsford on Feb. 11, 2002, after he received three Hot Pockets sandwiches from an inmate cleaning a prison chapel. In Lunsford’s termination letter, Warden Grant Harris said the sergeant took the sandwiches home on a tray, then brought them back to work the next day. Harris said Lunsford lied about receiving the food.

“Behavior such as this by a sergeant in the Arkansas Department of Correction is inexcusable,” Harris wrote. “You are required to lead by example and enforce policy. You have failed with these tasks.”

Lunsford acknowledged his error.

“An inmate gave me some food that was apparently stolen out of the chaplain’s refrigerator,” he said.

The prison system rehired Lunsford and placed him at the Tucker Unit on the night shift with Lt. John Glasscock. Both were fired this year after guards left an inmate naked and covered in his own feces for a weekend. He later was taken to a Little Rock hospital and placed on life support after doctors discovered he was suffering from septic shock.

Investigators found that Lunsford lied when he said he informed a supervisor about the inmate’s condition. Lunsford also said he worked guard duty patrolling the prison’s electric fence the night the inmate was stripped naked and did nothing wrong.

The investigation also found Glasscock apparently received a lap dance from a prison nurse within sight of inmates and spent “hours” with female officers in a prison office.

Norris said Tuesday that the “smoke” of other allegations surrounded Glasscock for some time, however, nothing was apparently done to put him on another shift or under closer watch by officials.

“That would be a decision of the warden,” Norris told reporters Tuesday. “We depend on people in those management levels to make those decisions at our facilities.”

David White, the warden of the Tucker Unit, declined to comment Wednesday. A telephone number listed in Glasscock’s name rang unanswered Wednesday.

Discipline problems among guards affect every prison, said Brent Smith, chairman of the University of Arkansas’ Sociology and Criminal Justice Department. He said guards often have to commute long distances to reach the rural areas where states place prisons. In Arkansas, guards typically start off with salaries of $25,000 to $35,000.

“It’s not an easy job. One of the major problems in all correctional institutions ... is turnover,” Smith said. “It’s hard to keep good people because it’s a very demanding job and it usually doesn’t pay what it should pay.”

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On the Net:

Arkansas Department of Correction: http://adc.arkansas.gov