From the Arkansas Advocate:
The Arkansas Board of Corrections has supervisory authority over the Secretary of Corrections and directors of the Department of Corrections, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled Friday.
Judge Patricia James granted a summary judgment to the board and against the state declaring Acts 185 and 659 of 2023 unconstitutional and void. The two laws, signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, transferred authority over the corrections secretary to the governor and supervisory authority over the directors of the Division of Correction and Division of Community Correction to the secretary.
The Board of Corrections sued the governor, the corrections secretary and the corrections department over the laws, arguing that Amendment 33 to the Arkansas Constitution gives the board authority over the secretary, the division directors and the department.
The judge agreed, saying, “Amendment 33 is unambiguous.” It “vests management and control of Arkansas’s penal and correctional institutions in the Board, prohibiting the transfer of those vested powers to another officer or entity… .”
Prior to the enactment of the laws, “the Secretary of Corrections and the division directors served at the pleasure of the Board and were subject to the Board’s direct supervisory authority,” James wrote.
The court order James issued permanently enjoins the defendants from enforcing the laws that gave the governor authority over the corrections secretary and the secretary authority over the division directors.
The order also specifically says the Secretary of Corrections and the two division directors “shall serve at the pleasure of and report directly to the Board of Corrections, consistent with Amendment 33.”
James also said the board is entitled to hire and pay its own lawyer, and she enjoined the defendants from interfering with the board’s ability to compensate its counsel.
Attorney General Tim Griffin, who represented the state and had challenged the board’s authority to hire its own attorney, said in a statement: “I am disappointed by the ruling, confident in our case, and plan to appeal.”
Case origins
After Sanders took office in 2023, she appointed Joe Profiri, a former Arizona prisons official as secretary of corrections. Profiri and members of the Arkansas Board of Corrections began having disagreements over the pace of proposed prison expansions, and board members later said Profiri refused to consult them on key issues.
The issues came to a head that November when Sanders called a press conference to bash the corrections board after it refused to approve Profiri’s plan to add 500 beds spread across five prisons.
Magness responded with a seven-page open letter saying the board couldn’t in good faith approve the expansion plan because of severe staffing shortages and because Profiri hadn’t given board members information they needed to make an informed decision.
The corrections board filed its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Acts 185 and 659 in mid-December 2023, and James issued a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the laws shortly after. In January 2024, the judge converted the TRO into a preliminary injunction after a hearing. Griffin appealed the decision.
Meanwhile, the board fired Profiri in early January, after having suspended him in December. Sanders almost immediately hired Profiri as a senior adviser. Profiri’s current salary is $189,210.94, according to the state’s transparency website.
In June, the Arkansas Supreme Court dismissed the state’s appeal of James’ preliminary injunction and sent the case back to the circuit court for resolution. The high court also dismissed the state’s motion to disqualify the board’s attorney, Abtin Mehdizadegan, from further participation in the litigation.
Mehdizadegan did not respond on Monday to an email or phone message seeking comment.
