The Nation: “So when news hit Facebook the day before Halloween last year that the governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was planning to call into the local radio station, KDYN True Country, to make an announcement, speculation ran wild. The station usually ran bulletins about local events like fish fries or little league baseball signups, not appearances from the governor.
The next afternoon, Don and Bo turned on their radio and listened in disbelief as Sanders announced that the state had bought an 815-acre ranch next door to them and planned to build a 3,000-bed prison there. Sanders declared that the prison would be the “single largest economic investment in the history of Franklin County.”…
Local opposition to the prison quickly grew forceful and widespread after the governor’s radio announcement. Farmers, teachers, and business owners of varying political persuasions were confused as to why state officials would pick the area for a new prison, questioning whether it was even feasible to build it there.
“We were just in shock,” Don’s daughter, McChristian, told me of her family and neighbors. “Because how do you live in the shadow of a mega prison?””