Arkansas Post-Prison Transfer Board Chairwoman Lona McCastlain

Lona H. McCastlain is the Chairwoman of the Arkansas Post Prison Transfer Board. She was initially appointed as a Commissioner to the Board in 2017. In 2024, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders reappointed Commissioner McCastlain to another 7-year term and named her as Chairwoman. She is the first woman to serve in that role.

Chairwoman McCastlain served as the elected Prosecuting Attorney for the 23rd Judicial District (Lonoke County) from 1999-2008. She was appointed by former Governor Mike Huckabee to serve on the Sex Offender Assessment Committee in 1999 and served until 2008. She was also appointed, by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, to serve on the Anti-Terrorism Task Force after 9/11.

Chairwoman McCastlain accompanied her husband to Europe in 2008. While overseas, she held a top-secret clearance and served as an Assistant Inspector General for the United States European Command with the primary responsibility of inspecting Offices of Defense Cooperation that conducted the Foreign Military Sales Programs throughout Europe, the Balkans, Israel, and Turkey.

Lona is a native of Cabot, Arkansas. She graduated from Arkansas State University. While stationed in Washington State, she attended law school at the University of Seattle Law school (formerly University of Puget Sound). She has practiced law in Arkansas since 1994.