Griffin: ‘The Board of Corrections has shown a complete disregard for the law’

LITTLE ROCK – After filing a lawsuit today against all seven members of the Arkansas Board of Corrections, Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:

“Today I filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court against the Arkansas Board of Corrections for three violations of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Two of the violations were illegal executive sessions held by the board, the result of one such session being the illegal hiring of an outside counsel without following the process required by law. The third was an improper response to a FOIA request I sent to the board earlier this week.

“In the lawsuit, I am asking the court to take three actions: First, to void the board’s illegal agreement entered into with an outside counsel because that agreement was the direct result of an illegal executive session. Second, to void the board’s decision to appoint an acting executive in charge of the Department of Corrections because that decision was also the direct result of an illegal executive session. And third, to order the board to fully respond to my FOIA request.

“The Board of Corrections has shown a complete disregard for the law, so I am asking the court to step in to compel compliance.”

To read the filing, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 27 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin attends Immanuel Baptist Church and lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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