Over the last week, residents in Franklin County have grown increasingly furious at Governor Sanders’ move to secretly ram a new 3,000 bed prison down their throats and into their home. Elected leaders – both local and in the State Legislature – were informed of the proposed site outside Charleston, Arkansas just a few days before it was publicly announced, despite the site being selected three months ago.
Over at On AR Watch, we documented the lies, the misdirections, and the secrecy, so hop over to this link to get a sense of where community members’ feelings lie about the way they’ve been treated.
Here, I want to zoom out and talk about Sanders’ history of steamrolling.
This situation is a particularly egregious example of her utter lack of care for the rule of law, separation of powers, and the will of the people who elected her. Franklin County went for Sanders by a huge margin; you’d think she would care a bit more about what they want.
On Thursday, Nov. 7, in a town hall that Sanders couldn’t be bothered to attend, the people certainly made their will known. Non-answers, outright lies, and condescension from Sanders “advisor” Joe Profiri and Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness were met with boos, jeers, and shouts of “we don’t want [the prison] here!” and “We don’t consent!”
Will of the people, meet arrogance and unchecked power.
To their credit, Sens. Stubblefield and King, along with Representative Eubanks, made their displeasure known and promised to do what they could to block the prison, at least until residents could get more information.
It’s unclear what they’ll be able to do, though. If they tried to file an injunction before the Board of Corrections met on November 8, it didn’t work; the Board voted to continue with the construction process.
This isn’t the first time Sanders has brewed up some kind of plan in near-secrecy, sprung it on folks, and used the weight of her national fame and office to slam it through. Famously, LEARNS passed the same way. Legislators were coerced into voting for LEARNS at the risk of their district funding. Sanders similarly threatened the Board of Corrections when they fired Profiri earlier this year.
Governors certainly have the right to use their position to get their policies passed, but it should be done with respect for the law and separation of powers. Sanders seems to have no respect for either, let alone her constituents. You cannot promise to use $450 million (and there’s no guarantee that’ll be the final price tag, according to Sen. King) in near-total secrecy while completely icing out a community and their elected leaders and not expect some real, genuine fury.
This fight isn’t over, but round one goes to secrecy, arrogance, and condescension.
You can read our thread covering the town hall here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1854670370055266315.htm
And you can read our thread covering the Board of Corrections vote here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1854893407594070267.html
