LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On Friday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed Brandon Tollett of Hot Springs Village to the Board of Corrections.
Tollett replaces outgoing member Whitney Gass, who has criticized the governor and her plans to expand the number of prison beds in the state.
"I am honored that Governor Sanders chose to appoint me to the Board of Corrections," Tollett said. "I look forward to working with the board and serving the people of Arkansas."
That plan is at the center of lawsuits between the board and Gov. Sanders over who gets the final say on adding prison beds.
The next hearing in those cases will be Tuesday.
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 they've hesitated to add the requested beds due to staffing and overcrowding issues. The board has also cited safety for both staff and inmates.
Arkansas's prisons are currently above capacity, with more than 1,600 additional state inmates being held in county jails.
Tollett has most recently been the director of safety at Ouachita Baptist University. His term on the Board of Corrections expires on December 31, 2030.