LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On Tuesday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ordered Attorney General Tim Griffin to come to an agreement with the state's Board of Corrections, or his case would be dismissed.
Griffin filed a lawsuit against the board last week after it hired an outside counsel and voted to suspend Secretary of Corrections Joe Profiri on Dec. 14 during a specially-called board meeting regarding a letter from Griffin.
Fox's ruling said that by filing a lawsuit against the Board of Corrections, Griffin "sued his own clients," violating his duties and responsibilities as the state's attorney general.
"By using his discretion to apparently not invoke the special counsel procedure, [Griffin] is apparently attempting to deliberately deprive his state clients of any legal representation of any nature or kind," Fox said in his ruling.
The judge's order gives Griffin 30 days to come to an agreement over a special counsel for the Board of Corrections.
In the letter sent to the corrections board, Griffin asserted that the board violated Arkansas law on Dec. 8 when it convened in an executive session and retained outside counsel without his authorization.
Board members also reportedly voted to file a lawsuit challenging a set of new laws that make the corrections secretary "answerable to the governor and not the board," according to an Arkansas Business report.
The lawsuit is against Sanders, Profiri, and the Dept. of Correction to "challenge the constitutionality of Acts 185 and 659."
Then, on Dec. 15, a Pulaski County judge said the decision to suspend Profiri could remain pending a hearing. Meanwhile, Griffin filed his lawsuit against the seven board members over hiring outside counsel and what he called "illegal" executive sessions.
In the lawsuit, he asks the court to void the contract with outside counsel, to reverse the board's decisions to appoint an acting executive in charge of the department, and to "order the board to fully respond to my FOIA request."
Those two laws amended Arkansas's 33rd Amendment to state that the secretary of corrections answers to the governor rather than the board.
This is the latest move as the corrections board faces pressure from the attorney general, the governor, and Profiri to add more prison beds to an already overcrowded prison system.
According to an Associated Press report, the Sanders administration went over the heads of the board to add hundreds of new beds earlier in December. Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders, said the decision came after the board added 124 beds at one prison but rejected adding 368 more beds to two other prisons.
The board has argued that because of staffing issues, they have hesitated to add the requested beds and continued concerns regarding overcrowding issues. The board has also cited safety for both staff and inmates.