LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Monday, Arkansas Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness penned a letter to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin in response to a press conference held last Friday, in which Sanders, Griffin and other state officials accused the Board of Corrections of standing in the way of prison reform in light of severe overcrowding in the state’s correctional units.
The letter from Magness, though calling for cooperation and communication between the Board of Corrections and the Governor’s Office and state legislature, was scathing in his criticism of the governor and Griffin’s statements as well as what he expressed as their misunderstanding of his stance as well as Arkansas’ prison system.
During last Friday’s press conference, Governor Sanders asserted that Arkansas’ corrections policies were “broken” and that “some in those positions of leadership are still playing games that put Arkansans in harm’s way.”
Griffin condemned the Board as well, saying it “failed to approve 500 additional prison beds…and demonstrated how out of touch with reality they are. Make no mistake, the Board’s decision makes us all less safe.”
The crux of the controversy is Arkansas Department of Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri’s requested addition of 622 beds to correctional facilities around the state, which the Board of Corrections denied in a November 6 meeting.
Magness defended the Board’s decision in his letter, saying that Profiri did not attend the November 6 meeting and his request was provided only minutes before the meeting began.
Magness also said that of the 622 additional beds requested by Profiri, 428 were proposed for for critically understaffed correctional units—some just over 60 percent staffed, according to Magness, who said though the Board approved a temporary increase for two facilities, it had additional questions and concerns that need to be addressed.
In his letter, Magness took Profiri to task for “fail[ing] to provide any information necessary for the Board’s ability to consider the propriety of the full request for 622 additional beds.”
“Notably, [Profiri] failed to supply information as to the steps taken to increase the number of officers needed to provide security; he failed to submit any information regarding the infrastructure changes that would be implemented in furtherance of his last-minute, unsupported request; and he failed to provide any information regarding the budgetary impact of his proposal,” Magness said.
“The Division [of Corrections] lacks the resources to overcrowd prisons, and to do otherwise would place our officers, inmates, and the public at risk. Taking these actions, without a fully informed and vetted plan, would be unethical, dangerous, and reckless,” he said.
“This leads to my second and broader concern, ” Magness said, “In calling on the Board to ‘do what is needed to protect our people,’ it was suggested at the press conference that the Board’s “bureaucratic red tape” is the only impediment to a ‘safer, stronger Arkansas.’ With the utmost respect, the ‘red tape’ that you reference is the Arkansas Constitution, and I vehemently disagree that the Arkansas Constitution is ‘bureaucratic red tape.’
Magness had previously opposed and publicly testified against reforms to Arkansas’ correctional system in the Protect Arkansas Act (Act 659), passed last legislative session by the Arkansas legislature. Among the reforms in the 132-page Protect Act was its extension of time inmates may serve as a result of stricter parole requirements.
“The Protect Act was designed specifically to reform our failed parole system and expand our prison capacity,” Griffin said. “Now [Magness] is using the Board to impede reform of the corrections system. For someone who claims to support law enforcement, the chairman’s actions indicate otherwise. He opposes solutions that would make us safer and help law enforcement; he’s part of the problem. The Board’s failure is territorial bureaucracy at its worst and is a clarion call for reform.”
“…the Board of Corrections is handicapping our ability to deliver what the voters of Arkansas have overwhelmingly supported by electing us,” said Arkansas Sen. President Bart Hester.
Magness emphasized that though the Board’s “highest priority is to properly manage the Division of Corrections…so that as many inmates as possible can be transferred from county jails into [state] facilities in a safe and efficient manner,” the Board is also “responsible to ensure…correctional facilities are adequate—both in terms of infrastructure as well as appropriate staffing.”
According to Magness, the Division of Corrections has an approved total capacity of 15,022 inmates and as of November 20, “the actual number of inmates in ADC facilities is 16,288, or 1,266 inmates over capacity, which does not include the approximately 2,000 ADC inmates held in county jail backup.
“I trust that your administration will support a robust funding measure at our next fiscal session…to provide the Board with the necessary resources to house the inmates committed into our custody,” Magness said.
Earlier this year, however, Sanders had already signed the Safer, Stronger Arkansas legislative package into law. The criminal justice legislation grants nearly half a billion dollars for more prison space and also includes $20 million to recruit, train, and retain correctional officers. It creates a new school for state troopers and allocates $5 million in overtime pay for police.
The new legislation also paves the way for the state to build a new, 3,000-bed prison to alleviate overcrowding in county jails and improving conditions for inmates.
Magness concluded his letter to the Governor and Attorney General with a call for cooperation.
“I reject the premise that our respective constitutional offices should be adversarial…ultimately, I know the Board shares your stated goal of reducing the population of inmates housed in county facilities, and I believe that we can accomplish this objective if we work together. Please consider this an open invitation to meet with the Board.”
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