The head of Arkansas’ state prison system will be stepping down next month.
Arkansas Department of Correction Secretary Wendy Kelley announced her retirement during a Board of Corrections meeting on Monday evening. She is expected to retire at the end of July.
Kelley has headed up the department since 2015 and became Arkansas’ first secretary of corrections in 2019 as a result of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s government transformation initiative, which merged the state Parole Board and the Department of Community Correction.
Originally an attorney, Kelley first joined the correction department in 2006, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Kelley first served as director for health and correctional programs before being named the deputy director and later the director of the department.
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