Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a motion on Monday seeking reconsideration of a Pulaski County circuit judge's temporary restraining order that blocked Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders from bypassing the state Board of Corrections' Constitutional authority and adding hundreds of beds at several state prisons. He also filed motions to disqualify the board's legal counsel and to dismiss the case entirely.
Judge Patricia James issued the temporary restraining order on Friday in response to a lawsuit the board filed Thursday against Sanders and state Department of Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri. In their complaint, the board alleged that Sanders and Profiri used Act 185 and some sections of Act 659 to circumvent their authority. The judge's order temporarily prevents the state from enforcing the former law and portions of the latter. She set a hearing date for Dec. 28.
James said in her order that the board's lawsuit was likely to succeed on the merits, because the board's authority is ingrained in the state constitution.
Griffin announced a separate lawsuit just minutes after James' order posted online, alleging the board violated the state's open meetings and records law when it hired outside counsel during a closed session and that it failed to properly respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from the attorney general's office. The attorney general sent a letter to board chairman Benny Magness last week stating the body needed to "cure these illegal actions" no later than than Dec. 15, the day Griffin ultimately filed the lawsuit.
The public fight between Sanders and the Board of Corrections began last month, after the governor called a news conference to pressure board members into backing her request to add 622 beds at several state facilities. The board had agreed to add 60 temporary beds at the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern, as well as 70 beds at the North Central Unit in Callico Rock. However, it initially rejected her request for a combined 492 beds at the Barber Ester Unit in Pine Bluff, the McPherson Unit in Newport and the Maximum Security Unit in Jefferson County.
At the time, the board said renovations were needed at two of the facilities. Members also expressed concerns that some of the prisons were already overcrowded and the expansions wouldn't serve county jails' long-term needs.
The board later agreed to additional beds at the Ester Unit, but balked at adding 368 beds at the McPherson and Maximum Security units in Newport and Jefferson counties.
A spokeswoman for Sanders' office said Dec. 8 that Profiri would move forward with the full plan, anyway, under orders from the governor.
"It's unfortunate the Board of Corrections did not listen to Secretary Profiri about the urgency of this matter and continues to play politics with the safety and security of Arkansans," Sanders spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Henning said that, according to the law, Profiri had the authority to open bed space, "and he will be doing so."
The dispute between the board and Sanders escalated Thursday after board members voted to suspend Profiri. The board voted 3-2 in favor of the suspension, with Magness saying after the meeting "The secretary has made it clear in public and in private that he works exclusively for the governor and not the board."
Profiri has said he would remain at work regardless of the board's decision, but he didn't show up to any Department of Corrections offices Friday, according to Department of Correction spokeswoman Dina Tyler. Instead, Profiri met with Sanders on Friday in the governor's conference room at the state Capitol, along with House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, and Senate President Pro-tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs.
The governor cited Acts 185 and 659, both passed earlier this year, as legal justification for ordering Profiri to move forward with adding the beds. Act 185 states the secretary of corrections serves at the pleasure of the governor, not the Board of Corrections. Act 659, also known as the Protect Act, requires the directors of the Division of Correction and Community Correction to serve at the pleasure of the secretary, not the board.
However, the board maintains those laws violate the body's authority, which comes from Amendment 33 to the Arkansas Constitution. Anticipating legal action to come, the board met in a closed session last week to retain Mehdizadegan as legal counsel and to discuss Profiri's job performance.
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