A state judge has ruled that Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ attempt to take control of Arkansas’s prison system violated the state constitution.
In a decision handed down Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Patricia James found that Sanders’ 2023 effort to move oversight of the Arkansas Department of Corrections from the state’s Board of Corrections to her office was “unconstitutional.”
“The undisputed facts and law establish that the Arkansas Board of Corrections is governed by Amendment 33 of the Arkansas Constitution and is charged with the management and control of the State’s penal and correctional institutions,” James wrote in her seven-page order. “When a statute conflicts with the Arkansas Constitution, it is the duty of the courts to uphold the Constitution and declare the statute void.”
The ruling blocks provisions from the “Safer, Stronger Arkansas” legislative package, a 2023 initiative that Sanders promoted as a cornerstone of her public safety agenda. The package authorized construction of a new 3,000-bed prison meant to address overcrowding across the state’s jails.
The Board of Corrections, however, argued that the state’s existing facilities were already dangerously understaffed and that building a new prison without additional personnel would put both inmates and corrections officers at risk. The board sued, contending that Sanders’ laws undermined its constitutionally established authority.
What followed was a months-long power struggle between the governor and the board over who ultimately controls the direction of the state’s corrections system. Judge James’ ruling makes clear that, under Arkansas law, that authority remains with the board. The court found that the state’s secretary of corrections, as well as the directors of the Division of Correction and Division of Community Correction, must answer to the Board of Corrections—not to the governor’s office.
In response, Sanders’ office pushed back. Her communications director, Sam Dubke, said that the administration’s prison reform plan was aimed at keeping dangerous offenders behind bars longer and preventing what he called “catch-and-early-release” policies. Dubke said the governor remains “confident in the Attorney General and his team’s appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court.”
The loss is Sanders’ second in as many weeks. On October 22, Judge James also struck down the governor’s decision to delay a special election until next summer, writing that while the governor “has the sole ability to set dates for a special election,” that power “is not absolute.”
The Arkansas Supreme Court is expected to take up the case in the coming months. Until then, control of the state’s prisons remains firmly with the Board of Corrections.
