Late Thursday afternoon, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Patricia James ruled the Arkansas Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri must serve the Board of Corrections, not Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Board Chairman Benny Magness spoke with KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News Friday morning to discuss the hearing.
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When asked about the new Corrections Board Member, Magness stated, “There is question about his qualifications, other than that I have no other comment.”
FULL INTERVIEW
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TRANSCRIPT OF ON AIR CLIP
MAGNESS: Yeah, we had a hearing on our issue that the board of corrections had with the acts of protect Arkansas and another actively was 185, but it was the parts of the act that the board had concerns about that impeded on the powers that’s vested with the board under the. Amendment 33 of the Arkansas Constitution.
And we felt like those statues and parts of those statues infringed on those powers. And basically from the start in 1942 when Amendment 33 was passed for several boards in Arkansas to be constitutional, the directors or top administrative people of those agencies worked at the pleasure of the boards.
And this amendment 33, it also covers higher education, like the boards of trustees for the University of Arkansas, Arkansas State University also as well. So the crutch of the issue was those parts of those that protect Arkansas, just the parts that we felt like was unconstitutional. The judge ruled that we were correct, that we are constitutional board and that those statues did in Peed on the vested powers of the board and were unconstitutional.
Of course, she didn’t rule that any parts of that protect Arkansas, that didn’t impede on the powers of the board were still intact. So the Law for Protect Arkansas is still intact. It’s just the part that we’re changing, who the directors and the secretary served at the pleasure of reverted back to the, the original before the statutes were passed back to the original of the, the Board of Corrections is the sole person that hires and fires the secretary and the directors of the agencies.
LOFTIS: And as you said, these date back to 1942 in an effort to keep these positions nonpolitical.
MAGNESS: Exactly. That’s what it was all about and is nonpolitics. And I was asked yesterday by some of the Little Rock press that the governor’s office said the board was playing politics.
And I probably answered it wrong because of course I said that it wasn’t political for us. But especially for me, I’ve had a long career of public service, and I like two years left on the Board of Corrections, and I’m ready to step down from all the public service that I’ve been involved in for over 50 years.
LOFTIS: At the end of your term?
MAGNESS: At the end of my term. I will not be leaving early. I will fulfill my term.
LOFTIS: The Governor named a new board member to the Board of Corrections earlier this week. Will that new board member take their seat for that January board meeting?
MAGNESS: There is some question that I hope gets resolved.
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