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4 days ago
- Politics
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Arkansas Corrections Board lawsuit against governor stays alive with Supreme Court ruling
Arkansas Supreme Court (Courtesy Photo) A lawsuit over who has the ultimate authority over the state prison system gained renewed life Thursday with the dismissal of a state appeal of a lower court preliminary injunction. The Arkansas Board of Corrections filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Dec. 14, 2023 against Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the secretary of state and Arkansas Department of Corrections, challenging the constitutionality of Act 185 and 659 of 2023. Act 185 requires the secretary of corrections to serve at the pleasure of the governor rather than the board, while Act 659 alters the reporting structure for the directors of the Division of Correction and Division of Community Correction, requiring them to serve at the pleasure of the secretary rather than the board. The board argued the laws violate Amendment 33 of the Arkansas Constitution, which protects the power of constitutional boards like the board of corrections from 'usurpation by the Governor or the General Assembly, or both,' according to Thursday's ruling. Arkansas judge sides with prison board in dispute with governor, corrections secretary A circuit court judge granted a preliminary injunction in January 2024, which Attorney General Tim Griffin appealed. The Supreme Court's ruling Thursday dismissed the state's motion to send the case back to the circuit court, order the preliminary injunction vacated and the case dismissed as moot. The high court also dismissed a motion to disqualify the corrections board's attorney from further participation in proceedings before the court. In its motion to remand, the state argues the controversy ended when the board fired former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri. The firing was part of a dispute between the board and the executive branch that started in late 2023 over who controls the state's prison system. The board's refusal in November 2023 to approve a request to increase prison capacity by 500 beds prompted harsh public criticism from Griffin and Sanders. The board responded by hiring an outside attorney the following month to represent it in employment matters. Because Profiri was fired prior to the entry of the preliminary injunction, the lower court's finding of irreparable harm was erroneous, the state argued. The board said it wasn't seeking court confirmation of its right to fire Profiri, but relief from the legislation regarding the board's authority under Amendment 33. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Karen Baker said she agreed with the board's assertion that Profiri's termination doesn't resolve the ultimate question of whether the board controls the secretary or division directors, and therefore the dispute is not specific to the individual holding the secretary's office. 'The Board's complaint concerns the Challenged Legislation and the resulting changes to the Board's supervisory authority. This dispute exists notwithstanding the individual who holds the Secretary position and is not personal to Secretary Profiri,' Baker wrote. 'Further, because this case presents an existing legal controversy, it is not moot. Therefore, we deny appellants' motion to remand.' The state also filed a motion to disqualify the legal counsel obtained by the corrections board, arguing the firm was obtained illegally. The board didn't follow state law for securing outside counsel, and the board did not have the 'authority to hire special counsel because the Board is not a constitutional officer,' the attorney general's motion argued. The circuit court denied this motion, explaining that 'the Board is a constitutionally created board, making its members constitutional officers' who therefore had the legal authority to hire special counsel. The attorney general typically represents state agencies, but state law gives constitutional officers the ability to hire outside counsel when they disagree with the attorney general over a constitutional provision. In dismissing this motion, Baker notes the board correctly points out that 'an order denying a motion to disqualify adversary's counsel in a civil proceeding is not an appealable final order.' 'As a general rule, an appeal from an interlocutory decision brings up for review only the decision from which the appeal was taken, here, the granting of an injunction,' Baker wrote. The motion to disqualify the attorney is outside the scope of the Supreme Court's review of the preliminary injunction, she said. The high court majority affirmed the lower court's issuance of an injunction because its 'findings that there would be irreparable harm were not clearly erroneous.' The crux of the lawsuit, Baker wrote, is whether the board retains ultimate authority over the corrections secretary and directors or whether the challenged legislation constitutionally transfers that power to the governor and corrections secretary. 'The evidence presented to the circuit court demonstrates that, in the absence of the injunction, the dispute will be ongoing until the constitutionality of the Challenged Legislation is resolved,' Baker said. 'This, coupled with appellants' failure to even argue their likelihood of success on the merits, leaves us with little choice under our deferential standard of review. 'We hold that the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the Board demonstrated that irreparable harm would result in the absence of the requested preliminary injunction, and we affirm,' she added. Arkansas Supreme Court sends AG's FOIA lawsuit against prison board back to circuit court Special Justices Troy Braswell and Bud Cummins joined in the decision. Associate Justice Barbara Webb concurred in part and dissented in part. Associate Justice Shawn Womack dissented. Associate Justices Cody Hiland and Nicholas Bronni, both of whom were appointed by the governor, did not participate. Webb wrote that she agreed with the majority that the matter is not moot because Profiri's termination doesn't resolve the question of whether Acts 185 and 659 of 2023 are unconstitutional. She also agreed that it's not appropriate to disqualify the board's counsel at this time. However, she argues the board 'failed to demonstrate irreparable harm' and the circuit court therefore erred in enjoining the challenged acts. 'The crux of the Board's claim for irreparable harm was Secretary Profiri's alleged acts of insubordination, which were directly attributable to Act 185 requiring the Secretary to serve at the pleasure of the Governor rather than the Board,' Webb wrote. 'This harm is not irreparable…By definition, if a secretary may be terminated and his actions undone, then it cannot be said that any harm resulting therefrom is 'irreparable.'' In his dissenting opinion, Womack argues the court must vacate the preliminary injunction and dismiss the lawsuit because sovereign immunity bars the board's lawsuit against the governor, corrections secretary and Department of Corrections. Sovereign immunity, which Womack cites often in court opinions, is the legal doctrine that the state cannot be sued in its own courts. 'Even if that was not so, the Board would still lose because it failed to show irreparable harm — a necessary element to establish entitlement to a preliminary injunction,' Womack wrote 'Therefore, I also join the other dissenting opinion in this case.' Regarding the issue of the disqualification of the board's 'potentially illegally retained counsel, I again remind citizens of this state of their ability to protect themselves 'against the enforcement of any illegal exactions whatever,'' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Arkansas lawmakers advance $750 million appropriation bill for prison construction
(Getty Images) A legislative committee on Thursday approved a $750 million appropriation bill for the cost of constructing a new 3,000-bed prison in western Arkansas, three weeks after rejecting a request for approval to draft the bill. Funds for the project won't get disbursed until formal requests are approved by the Legislature, but that didn't stop members of the Joint Budget Committee Thursday morning from venting about the Sanders administration's decision to place a new prison in rural Franklin County in an effort to alleviate overcrowding in county jails. Searcy Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang, committee co-chair and lead sponsor of Senate Bill 354, said he heard his colleagues' previous concerns about not having a total cost estimate for the project. Vanir Construction, the firm hired by the Department of Corrections as the project's construction manager, issued a letter with a preliminary cost estimate of $825 million on March 3, the same day Dismang filed a bill to appropriate $750 million for the project. Arkansas officials estimate new prison cost at $825M; bill appropriating $750M filed Lawmakers have had weeks to read the bill and ask questions, according to Dismang, who reminded his colleagues that approving SB 354 would not release any funds and was required to start a capital project. 'There are stopgaps and stopgaps and stopgaps in front of us as we discuss funding along the way and how we're going to do that,' he said. 'This is not that. This is the appropriation for a capital project to build a prison. Period. This is not the end of our responsibility. This is not the end of our discussion. This allows us to have the bigger conversation.' Several lawmakers who've been vocal critics of the project remained unsatisfied Thursday, arguing that local residents don't want the prison in their community and that costs will be higher than estimated due to a lack of needed infrastructure as well as rising costs of construction materials and the possible effect of steel tariffs. Lawmakers' questions were fielded by former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri. After being fired by the Arkansas Board of Corrections last year, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders hired him as a senior aide. Sanders later appointed Lindsay Wallace his successor. The prison could be opened in phases, according to Profiri, who said the intent is to activate at least part of the facility in late 2026 or early 2027. The goal would be to have the project finished by 2029. Profiri also told lawmakers the ultimate cost of the project will be determined by engineers' findings, and he noted that adjustments can be made to stay within budget. Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said Profiri has worked on at least three prison facilities over the course of nearly 40 years in corrections and was able to keep them under budget, honoring the wishes of lawmakers who have the ultimate approval of how much is spent. 'I struggle to think, what if we don't build this prison, what is the cost to society?' Hester said. 'How do we answer to the people at home when there's no misdemeanor justice? What is the cost to not do this?' The need for more prison space is expected to increase as the state implements 2023's Protect Arkansas Act, which requires the most serious offenders to serve the majority of their sentences. County jails currently house roughly 10% of state inmates, costing the state nearly $30 million annually, according to a corrections department spokesperson. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said he supports a new prison and is willing to overlook some of his fiscal responsibility because he feels the prison is needed so badly. But the state could have done more on the front end to ensure the property it bought was suitable, including making sure there was sufficient access to utilities and no environmental concerns, he said. 'So to sit here and tell me that you've got this great experience in doing this and you have basically flubbed the purchase, it's just insulting to me,' he said. '…I did an amendment to try to make it so that we'd have the money because this might be a four- or five-year project, but we don't want to listen to that or try to do that to have the money in place. We just want to talk about how we're going to do this and we can't even get the first step right.' Hickey was referring to an amendment to SB 254 that failed in the JBC Special Language subcommittee about an hour before the Joint Budget Committee met Thursday morning. The proposal wasn't about spending money, but 'moving money and parking it in holding accounts,' he said. One proposed account would be the $750 million mentioned in the appropriation bill, an account Hickey said is already set aside with roughly $330 million in it. The other account for $250 million would be for prison construction or contingencies. Prison opponents voice concerns as Arkansas officials proceed with 3,000-bed project The Legislature set aside $75 million in 2022 and $330 million in 2023 for prison expansion. The amendment would also have allowed the interest being put into the Catastrophic Reserve Fund, which Hickey said had roughly $1.9 billion in it, to be released so it can also be used. 'What this will also do is make it so that we have enough money to park this billion dollars, and it also will free up about another hundred million dollars in funds to help with our cash flow,' Hickey said in the subcommittee. As a member of the committee, Hickey made a do-pass motion, but it failed for lack of a second. During the Joint Budget Committee meeting, Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, said the state 'had a lot of money burning a hole in our pocket.' The state's general revenue surplus was $698.4 million in fiscal year 2024, the fourth-largest surplus on record. The general revenue surplus exceeded $1 billion in the two previous years. Everyone agreed to build a prison, but Payton said he's not sure 'we made a wise business decision' about where to put it. 'But it did destroy a lot of confidence in the people making the decision, and when we're talking about what could be a billion dollar project, we need some confidence in how the decisions are going to be made,' he said. When the governor announced in late October the purchase of 815 acres near Charleston for $2.95 million, several Arkansas lawmakers, as well as local officials and residents, decried the decision for its lack of transparency and have continued to push back against the project. Even if the state increases prison capacity, Payton said, staffing will be an issue, as it has been for a number of years. 'That's what concerns me most, and that's why I think we need to slow down instead of running off half-cocked and pursuing what could be a major problem in the end,' he said. Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a Branch Republican whose family land is near the prison site, requested the committee's vote be divided by chambers. The bill advanced after garnering a 17-10 vote on the Senate side and a 16-10 vote on the House side. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
