LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It was an all-day affair at the Arkansas Board of Corrections Wednesday in its first regular meeting since a series of court battles with the state and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
In the meeting, the board unanimously voted Eddie Joe Williams as the new interim secretary of corrections, replacing Joe Profiri, who was fired in early January and vowed to override the board’s objections and expand the number of beds without their approval.
The Board of Corrections approved new leadership during the more than five-hour meeting and settled on the criteria to add bed space in prisons.
"There's been some changes on how they were going to open it," Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness said. "You could see once we got where we felt more comfortable with it, we approved the 124 beds."
Magness said those additional beds will come only after sufficient new staff is hired. The 124 beds are expected to be placed at the Tucker Re-entry Center, where the board said they place lower-risk inmates.
Prison bed space was central to recent court battles between the Board of Corrections and the Sanders administration.
"We approved every bed the governor has asked for," Magness said.
The department also discussed how they'd pay the legal bills for those court cases that landed in the board's favor, which the chief financial officer said needs a legislative audit into the hiring process.
"The law is on our side," Magness said. "We're going to move forward. [It's] just the best method to make sure we don't cause any more ruffles... than we have to... We have many policies in Arkansas, and it takes a while to figure out whether they're effective for every citizen."
Following those court hearings, Magness hopes to push past ongoing tension with the governor's office.
"We just need a new start and move forward," Magness said. "There's big things to do."
The board aims to hire those new staff members for the Tucker Re-entry Center in the next two weeks and add beds shortly after.
The court cases concerning the board and the state are still expected to face appeals to the state Supreme Court.