LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has written a letter to Eddie Joe Williams encouraging him to decline the Board of Corrections appointing him as interim secretary.
The letter was sent to Williams one day after the full board voted unanimously to tap him as the interim secretary after Joe Profiri was fired in early January.
Griffin said that Arkansas law states that the board has "no such authority" to appoint an interim secretary and that the position doesn't exist within the Department of Corrections.
"The power to nominate a secretary is solely vested in the Governor of Arkansas," Griffin wrote and noted that the board acknowledged this power.
Griffin said by appointing Williams, the board has "usurped" Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' ability to nominate a replacement for Profiri.
"No matter what the board chooses to name this position, it is abundantly clear from the board's discussion and vote that they intended for you to serve as interim secretary of the Department of Corrections," Griffin said.
The attorney general ended the letter by asking Williams to deny the appointment and warned that if the role was accepted, it "may result in litigation being filed to prevent you from serving and being compensated."
This move is another step in the ongoing feud between the prison board and the Sanders administration regarding adding more beds to existing prisons. The board has challenged the governor, citing safety concerns and staffing issues.
But in the same meeting where Williams was named interim secretary, the board approved adding more beds to state prisons. Those 124 beds, expected to be added at the Tucker Re-entry Center, would only be added once a sufficient amount of new staff has been hired.
The board expects those new hires to happen over the next two weeks, and the beds will be added shortly after that.