The Arkansas Capitol on Nov. 14, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday appointed a former Republican lawmaker to the state’s prison oversight board and a current legislator’s wife to the state library board.
Grant Hodges will replace Board of Corrections member Rev. Tyrone Broomfield, who had nearly three decades of experience on the board and was vice chair when his term ended on Dec. 31, 2024.
Hodges’ appointment was one of more than three dozen Sanders announced Wednesday. Among those, Rep. Brit McKenzie’s wife, Sydney, was appointed to the Arkansas State Library Board. She will replace Donnette Smith, whose term ended in 2024.
Sydney McKenzie, who lives in Rogers, will serve until 2031. She had not responded to a request for comment through her husband by the time of publication.
Hodges’ term on the prison board will also end in 2031.
“We’re grateful to Reverend Broomfield for his years of service and dedication to the Board. He brought a lot of insight and wisdom, and his words carried a lot of weight. I enjoyed serving with him and wish him the best,” Chairperson Benny Magness said in a statement on Wednesday.
Hodges was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 2015, but he resigned in 2020 and took a job at Northwest Arkansas Community College. Voters elected Hodges, a resident of Centerton in Benton County, again in 2022, but he did not seek reelection in 2024.
Republican Nick Burkes of Bentonville was sworn in this week as Hodges’ successor.
Grant Hodges, Republican, 14th District
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John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate 03/01/2023
Hodges marks Sanders’ third appointment to the seven-member correctional body since she assumed office. Her other appointments include Brandon Tollett and Lona McCastlain, whom Sanders also appointed to lead the department’s Post-Prison Transfer Board.
Board members serve seven-year staggered terms.
Hodges did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his appointment.
According to the Department of Corrections’ website, the board’s responsibility “is to manage correctional resources in the state such that offenders are held accountable for their actions, victims’ needs are addressed in a positive manner and the safety of society is enhanced.”
The board’s expressed authority, especially regarding prison expansions, was the subject of a public dispute among state officials in 2023 that led to the firing of Sanders’ Corrections Secretary appointee, Joe Profiri.
Broomfield was one of five board members who voted to oust Profiri.
Afterward, Sanders hired Profiri as a senior adviser and he remains involved, to some degree, with the ongoing controversy over building a new state prison, which is planned for Franklin County.
In November, Profiri told locals who attended a town hall meeting shortly after the prison site was announced that the location was selected about three months before the public was informed. He said officials kept the deal private to avoid a bidding war, and the cost of the prison will depend on the chosen design.
The Legislature has set aside $330 million for the project, and there’s another $75 million in reserves, Profiri said at the time. The state purchased 815 acres in Franklin County for nearly $3 million, and the prison board contracted with a management company to oversee the construction and design of the prison for $16.5 million.
A handful of Arkansas lawmakers plan to push back against the state’s prison plan in the 95th General Assembly, which began Monday.
Sen. Bryan King has presented an alternative to a potentially billion-dollar prison and a bipartisan group of lawmakers attended a short press conference where a local coalition raised concerns about the prison on Tuesday.
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