Gov. Sanders calls on Jiles to resign from Board of Corrections

Gov. Sarah Sanders on Thursday (Feb. 29) joined the call from others for Arkansas Board of Corrections member Alonzo Jiles to resign after it was revealed he faces lawsuits alleging that he helped cover up decades of sexual abuse at the Lord’s Ranch.

The Lord’s Ranch Church Camp was located in Warm Springs, Ark., and was open between 1976 and 2016. The facility in 2014 was suspended by the Arkansas Department of Human Services, and then the license was revoked by the department’s Child Welfare Agency.

“The accusations against Alonza Jiles are concerning and a distraction from his work and the work of the Board of Corrections. I am calling on Mr. Jiles to resign from his post and allow our state to fully focus on improving community safety and ending the revolving door in our prisons,” Sanders said in a statement issued Thursday.

Jiles was appointed by former Gov. Asa Hutchinson to the BOC in March 2022. His term expires Dec. 31, 2027.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin on Feb. 22 called for Jiles to resign, and Arkansas Senate President Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, on Feb. 26 demanded that Jiles resign.

“When you have as many as 50 current adults saying when I was young, he had knowledge of my abuse at the Lord’s ranch, and did nothing and didn’t step in, he shouldn’t be somebody in a position of leadership today for our state,” Hester said at the time.

It was unclear if Sanders would call for Jiles’ resignation because the Lord’s Ranch was owned by Ted Suhl, a supporter and financial contributor to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – Gov. Sanders’ father. Suhl was convicted in 2016 of paying state officials bribes for inside information. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but Huckabee and others successfully lobbied then President Donald Trump for a commutation of Suhl’s sentence. Trump commuted the sentence in 2019.

UPDATE: Jiles provided a statement to the media, stating he had no plans to resign and he denied the charges against him.

“I have been asked repeatedly by the media and politicians to comment on the lawsuits involving the Lord’s Ranch in which I am named as a defendant. The allegations against me are false. I was not aware of, nor did I participate in any child abuse. I did not preside over a wedding of any minor at the Lord’s Ranch. I have kept silent about this on the advice of counsel and because these lawsuits are pending,” Jiles said.

“The efforts to force me to resign from the Board of Corrections because of these baseless allegations is yet another attack on Amendment 33 of the Arkansas Constitution and the shield it provides to constitutional boards against political pressure,” he added.

SANDERS, BOC BACKGROUND
The controversy around Jiles is also part of a larger conflict between Sanders and the BOC. A disagreement went public Nov. 17 when Sanders and Griffin held a press conference during which the governor blasted the BOC for rejecting most of a request to provide more than 600 additional beds in the prison system. The BOC is the governing body of the state’s prison system. BOC members at the time contended that the prison system lacked the staff to responsibly add more beds.

The BOC initially suspended Profiri for acting against BOC decisions, and would fire Profiri on Jan. 10 in a 5-2 vote.

Sanders and Griffin asserted that Acts 185 and 659, passed in the 2023 Legislative Session, give the governor direct authority over leadership at the Department of Corrections. The BOC on Dec. 14 filed lawsuits in Pulaski County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of sections of Acts 185 and 659. The BOC claims that Amendment 33, ratified in 1942, does not allow a governor to take direct control of the state’s prison system.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Patricia James on Jan. 19 ruled for the BOC and granted a restraining order preventing Sanders and Griffin from exercising authority under Acts 185 and 659.