News Releases

Attorney General Griffin Praises Protect Arkansas Act

Griffin: ‘If we aren’t safe, we aren’t free.’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement praising the introduction of the Protect Arkansas Act, which will reform Arkansas’s criminal justice system, creating truth in sentencing:

“As I often say, if we aren’t safe, we aren’t free.

“The first responsibility of government is to keep its citizens safe, and on this point, the status quo has failed. Arkansas has a deceptive and dangerous parole problem where violent felons go free after serving only a fraction of their time. These violent felons return to our neighborhoods, where they are likely to commit another violent crime against Arkansans. This reality is unacceptable.

“I am grateful to Senator Ben Gilmore and Representative Jimmy Gazaway for showing an early interest last year in reforming our criminal justice system and working to make Arkansas safer. This bill will help protect our communities, victims and our state’s future. I am also very thankful for the partnership with Governor Sanders and her staff to help bring this critical and historic criminal justice reform bill to fruition. I especially want to thank Senior Assistant Attorney General Ryan Cooper, who has played an indispensable role in the drafting of this bill.”

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was elected Attorney General of Arkansas on November 8, 2022. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas on November 4, 2014, and was re-elected for his second four-year term on November 6, 2018. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th Representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District. For the 113th Congress, he was a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority. In the 112th Congress, he served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He also attended graduate school at Oxford University. Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, for over 25 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 Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 81st Readiness Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Prior to his current post, Griffin served as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment (LOD) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and a senior legislative advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Colonel Griffin holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He 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. Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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