Four weeks after suspending Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri with pay and banning him from the Department of Corrections administrative building, the Board of Corrections voted 5-2 Wednesday to fire him.
The board held a special meeting via teleconference Wednesday afternoon to discuss a single agenda item — the status of Profiri’s job. The board could have chosen to lift the suspension and put him back to work, extend the suspension or fire him.
After a 7-minute discussion, led mostly by board member Lee Watson, the board decided to fire him.
“I think Arkansas deserves better,” Watson said before making the motion to terminate Profiri’s employment.
Chairman Benny Magness, who doesn’t typically vote, voted with the majority Wednesday.
He said he would personally call Profiri to deliver him the news.
Wednesday’s decision comes after two months of wrangling between the board and the secretary, who the board has accused of being insubordinate and uncommunicative.
Profiri is named along with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Department of Corrections in a lawsuit filed by the board. The lawsuit seeks to ensure that the board maintains its authority to supervise and manage the corrections secretary, as well as the directors of the Department of Corrections’ Division of Correction and Division of Community Correction.
Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Patricia James on Dec. 15 issued a temporary restraining order barring the enforcement of Act 185 of 2023 and portions of Act 659 of 2023, which the board contends weakens the board’s authority set forth in the Arkansas Constitution.
After a hearing last week, James converted the order into a preliminary injunction, which will stay in place until the lawsuit is resolved.
Acts 185 and 659 were passed during the 2023 legislative session and signed into law by Sanders. Act 185 would require the secretary of corrections to serve at the pleasure of the governor, and Act 659 would, in part, require directors of the Divisions of Correction and Community Correction to serve at the pleasure of the secretary.
The board filed the lawsuit Dec. 14, 2023, the same day it announced it had suspended Profiri.
Attorney General Tim Griffin, who is representing Profiri and the other defendants in the lawsuit, said he was “disappointed” by the board’s decision Wednesday night.
