Take the fictionalized Howard Beale from the 1976 movie "Network", multiply him by 2000, and try to run a highly suspect decision to put a prison into their backyard past them with little or no regard for transparency and you have the perfect recipe for what occurred Thursday night at the Charleston High School gymnasium.
Citizens of Franklin County and the surrounding area showed up in drives to the hastily called, Hail Mary attempt at forcing a 3000-bed correctional facility to be built just eight miles north of Charleston in the Vespa community, and let's just say the people are" mad as whell and aren't going to take it anymore".
For some. the lack of transparency in the process which led to the selection of the 8000-plus acre plot of land for the project was the issue, but overall the preceived damage to "quality of life" in the region seemed to be the driving force of the angst and anger towards the representatives from the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
The officials and citizens on hand said they would seek an injunction on Friday morning in an attempt to forestall a pending vote by the executive board of the Board of Corrections set for 9 am. Arkansas Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness announced the Board of Corrections) would vote on the prison during a Friday morning meeting. He refused to postpone the vote but clarified that the vote is only to accept the land purchased by the state for building a prison, not to approve prison construction.
Citing the fact the decision to place an option on the property in July while admitting residents of the county, and even members of the state legislature who represent the area, were not notified of the plans until two days before the decision was announced, members of the delegation from Little Rock withstood a two-hour barrage of questions from mediator Jon Eubanks, who served as moderator for the crowd by proxy,.
State Senator's Gary Stubblefield and Brian King, as well as a number of other members of the state legislature and local officials said they were notified of the "done deal" just two days before the state closed on the property in the community of Vesta, which is located on State Highway 217 north Charleston.
Joe Profiri, senior advisor to the governor, explained that the governor’s office did not inform legislators earlier to avoid driving up the land price and to be responsible with state funds.
On October 31, Gov. Sarah Sanders, Arkansas Department of Corrections Secretary Lindsay Wallace,, and other officials announced the purchase of the land, which was selected because it met certain criteria.
The vocal and sometimes hostile gathering of citizens let their displeasure ar the situation be known throughout the event and `vowed to fight the process to the end.
“The biggest mistake of this meeting is that it wasn’t held a month ago. Everything was kept a secret because you didn’t want the cost of land to go up? What about the loss to the people here in property values?” Stubblefield asked during the during themeeting “One of the fundamental principles that make this country is transparency. … They’ve got everything backward.”
State Sen, Brian King, whose District encompasses northern Fraklin and southern Washington County, was a little more blunt in his assessment.
"Unfortunately, this is something you see in a Communist country," King told Tday in Fort Smith. "You can understand a private business not knowing but the government shouldn't work this way...we were told this prison would be 3000 beds built at a cost of $470 million, that's what they sold the people of Arkansas, and they need to know they basically lied about that."
"I've asked for details and they lied about that from the start," said King. "The prison that have proposed will cost $1 billion to build. They need to do something about crime at it's source and not keep building prisons in communities that don't want them to house prisoners coming basically from just eight counties in the state."
Residents raised concerns about local water supplies, infrastructure, available workforce, as well as the need for a comprehensive assessment of the environmental, economic, and social impact before approving the prison.
Profiri admitted that no studies of the land had been conducted. The site was chosen primarily because it is more than 60 miles from other state prisons and due to the size of the area’s workforce. He assured that the state would provide the necessary infrastructure for the prison and its construction, including its own water and sewer plants.
Profiri also raised his voice at one point and guaranteed that "six months after this prison is built you or members of your family will be working there" while pointing to the crowd of spectators.
Stubblefield and Franklin County Judge Rickey Bowman believe the governor’s office and the board of corrections violated state law by not holding public hearings before the land purchase.
They have asked Jeff Phillips with the county’s prosecuting attorney’s office to file an injunction against the prison.
Shannon McChristian, a longtime resident of the area, told Today in Fort Smith the opposition to the project were more concernsabout the way of life in the community than anything else.
"We have chosen an area which is low crime, that is a close-knit community and all the economy in the world and all the growth in the world is not going to change our mind about giving up the way of life we treasure here" said McChristian. "We are low crime rate here and we're getting all these criminals dumped on us from other parts of the state. It's just not fair."
This is a developing storyl and we will provide updates as more information becomes available.
