LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin is advising a former state senator asked by the Board of Corrections to take over as interim agency head to turn down the job.
Former Arkansas legislator Eddie Joe Williams was unanimously voted to lead the agency by the board in a Wednesday meeting. The opening came after the board had fired Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ appointee Joe Profiri on Jan. 10, 2023.
Arkansas Board of Corrections hires interim Secretary of Corrections
Griffin’s letter states that the role of corrections secretary can only be appointed by the governor, based on Arkansas law. He gave Williams a deadline of 3 p.m. Friday to decide to turn down the appointment.
The AG noted that even though board chairman Benny Magness referred to Williams’s appointment as that of an “interim executive-in-charge” serving in a consultant capacity in a Feb. 1 letter to the governor, the language is not enough to change the requirement for a governor appointment.
“As the Bard once wrote, ‘that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet,’” Griffin wrote in his letter to Williams. “No matter what the Board chooses to name this position, it is abundantly clear from the Board’s discussion and votes that they intended for you to serve as interim Secretary of the Department of Corrections.”