LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — The power to determine who is in charge of Arkansas prisons lies with the Board of Corrections, not Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Pulaski County Judge Patricia James determined in a new ruling.
In her ruling, James found that two new Arkansas laws, Acts 185 and 659, which said that the Arkansas Governor could decide who runs the Department of Corrections and that those leaders ultimately work for the Governor, were unconstitutional.
Specifically, James found that these laws violate Amendment 33 of the Arkansas Constitution, which says that the “powers vested” in boards “charged with the management or control of all charitable, penal or correctional institutions” “shall not be transferred” unless the whole system is abolished or reorganized…