Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Advocate
A former Republican state senator resigned as the temporary head of Arkansas’ prison system on Tuesday, less than a week after his appointment.
The Arkansas Board of Corrections tapped former Sen. Eddie Joe Williams of Cabot as interim secretary of corrections on Jan. 31, but Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin immediately challenged the board’s authority to make such an appointment, noting that power, under state law, resides with the governor.
Williams replaced former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri, who was Sanders’ pick to lead the department, but the board fired him last month in its ongoing dispute with the governor.
Williams said last week that he hoped to “bridge the gap” and “steady the ship” until the dispute is resolved and a permanent secretary selected, but in a resignation letter, Williams suggested that wasn’t doable.
“As we have previously discussed, if I was unable to accomplish my goals while working with the Department of Corrections, I would gladly step aside,” Williams wrote to the board. “Numerous times before and during our executive meeting, we discussed the goals of expanding prison beds, hiring and retaining employees and bringing stakeholders together. I regretfully find myself in the position today that I am unable to accomplish those and must step aside.”
Griffin, in addition to concerns about the board’s authority to hire Williams, wrote in a letter to Chairman Benny Magness last week that the board violated the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act twice when it entered executive sessions during the meeting at which it voted to hire Williams.
As of Monday, Williams had been reporting to work at the Department of Corrections each day since his appointment.
Both Sanders and Griffin praised Williams’ decision to step down.
“The Governor appreciates Eddie Joe Williams’ service and respects his decision to do the right thing and follow the law,” Communications Director Alexa Henning said. “The Board of Corrections knows that it is only the Governor who selects and nominates the secretary.”
Griffin in a social media post said: “Sen. Williams made the right and honorable decision by refusing to accept the illegal appointment offered by the Board of Corrections. I appreciate and applaud his clarity of thought and strength of character at a critical and undoubtedly stressful time.”
The saga around Williams’ hiring is the latest in a series of fights between the Board of Corrections and Sanders and Griffin.
The dispute began over a disagreement about how to add roughly 600 temporary inmate beds to existing prison facilities, but now, all of those beds have been approved and the dispute has morphed into a broader debate over who has the ultimate authority over Arkansas’ correctional system.
A lower court judge last month agreed with the board that it had constitutional authority over the department, but Griffin plans to appeal that ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
To read more on this story, visit the Arkansas Advocate online.
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