The Arkansas Board of Corrections selected a new director for the Division of Correction on Friday, authorities said.
Board members selected Dexter Payne, former deputy director of institutions, as the new leader of Arkansas’ prison system.
“It was a surprise to me,” Payne said on Saturday. “I am nervous, but at the same time, I have a great staff around me and a management team to help me.”
In June, the previous director, Wendy Kelley, became the first secretary of corrections in the governor’s newly revised Cabinet. In an interview Saturday Kelley said she felt the division needed a full-time director.
“I think he’s well-prepared to do this job,” Kelley said Saturday. “He’s very ethical. He will tell you what he thinks even if it’s not what you want to hear.”
Payne has been working with the corrections division since he was 19 and has been in a supervisory position for more than 22 years, according to his resume.
Payne’s appointment was announced at 8 p.m. Friday in a Facebook post after a Board of Corrections meeting earlier in the day.
Read more in Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.