Arkansas governor nominates new corrections secretary; state logs 1,013 new virus cases

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Gov. Asa Hutchinson recommended Solomon Graves as the state’s new Department of Correction Secretary during a news conference Thursday.

Graves has served as the chief of staff for the department for the last year. Before that, he served as their public information officer and has spent almost 10 years on the Arkansas Parole Board.

Wendy Kelley, who has been the head of the department for five years will retire at the end of the month. She announced that she was stepping down last month.

If the Arkansas Board of Corrections approves his nomination, Graves will become head of the department while coronavirus flows through Arkansas’ prisons.

In April, Kelley said that if the virus got into one of the prisons, it would be “disastrous.” Now, Arkansas has positive cases in the Wrightsville Complex, the East Arkansas Regional Unit, the Cummins Unit, the Pine Bluff Complex, the Tucker Reentry Center, the Grimes Unit, the Ouachita River Unit and the Northwest Arkansas Work Release Center.

Arkansas had 841 active cases in correctional facilities on Thursday; the Ouachita River Unit is home to 577 of them. Hutchinson said the Malvern facility is made up of elderly inmates or those with special needs and health problems.

“It’s a population that is in poor health,” Hutchinson said. “We have to watch it more carefully.”

Over half of the inmates in Arkansas have been tested for the virus, including all 1,739 Ouachita River inmates. Of the 8,583 inmates tested, 3,789 tested positive. Of those, 2,970 have recovered.

Officials said on Thursday that 103 inmates had been sent to hospitals for treatment for the virus and 21 inmates had died from it.

“We care about our inmates, they didn’t ask for COVID-19,” Hutchinson said. “That was not expected during their period of incarceration.”

Arkansas had the largest growth in community cases with 1,013 new cases reported Thursday. Of the new cases, 113 came from Pulaski County, 76 came from Washington County, 73 came from Benton County and 65 came from Sebastian County.

Hutchinson said the new number does include some overlap from a lull in testing over the last few days. On Wednesday, 5,487 people were tested for coronavirus.

“We need to do better in terms of our testing,” Hutchinson said.

Interim Health Secretary Dr. Jose Romero said the state is in the process of putting new measures in place to receive testing results faster. He said he could not provide a timeline or specifics.

Officials reported six new hospitalizations and six new deaths on Thursday.

State Sen. Jason Rapert confirmed that he tested positive for coronavirus and was in the hospital with pneumonia Thursday morning. Hutchinson said during the news conference that he has reached out to Rapert’s family and expressed his best wishes.