Arkansas organizations sign letter in opposition to new prison

Seventeen Arkansas community organizations have signed on to a letter opposing construction of a new state prison in Franklin County. 

Elected officials and local residents said they were blindsided by the governor’s announcement on Oct. 31 that the state had purchased 815 acres near Charleston for $2.95 million with the intent of building a roughly 3,000-bed prison to help alleviate crowding in public jails. 

Despite a public outcry about a lack of transparency surrounding the deal, the Arkansas Board of Corrections approved the state’s new land purchase Friday.

DecARcerate Arkansas is one of 17 organizations that signed on to the letter, according to a Monday press release. Executive director Zachary Crow said Arkansas has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world, but despite that, state lawmakers and prison officials “have consistently turned to prison expansion in an attempt to lower crime rates, address overcrowding in prisons and jails, and as a political ploy to further their own ‘tough on crime’ agendas.”

“Their lack of imagination further entrenches Arkansas in an unsustainable and oppressive system of mass incarceration, which is incapable of addressing many of the underlying societal harms that lead to behavior lawmakers deemed criminal,” Crow said in a statement. “Prison does nothing to address poverty, the mental health crisis, addictions, and systemic trauma. Together we must demand better of our elected officials, in pursuit of a more just and equitable Arkansas.”

Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition also signed the letter, and executive director Sarah Moore said construction of what’s expected to be a multimillion dollar facility is not a good use of taxpayer money. 

“In a state where so many households cannot come up with $100 for an emergency incident, it is fiscally irresponsible for Arkansas leadership to continue to waste taxpayer funds to build more prison beds that Arkansas can neither afford to build or to maintain,” Moore said. “Families are challenged each day to commit to a budget to cover their bare essentials and the state should be managing to this same challenge and is currently not fulfilling its obligation.”

The state spends roughly $30 million a year to house inmates in county facilities because of a lack of space in state prisons, according to the governor’s office. The Department of Corrections’ fiscal 2025 budget is roughly $618 million.