Submitted and written by By Arkansas State Senator Bryan B. King
July 4, 2025
Who will cash in on construction of the Franklin County prison? And who will be left holding the mega prison scam bag?
To find out, let’s fast forward to July 2032 and assume that the mega prison scam has been approved. But first, let’s look at what is happening today in Utah and Alabama, where mega prisons are being built.
The one in Utah was built and caused a cost explosion. The original promise was that it would cost $500 million, but the actual cost was double. Even now, problems continue because, although it’s only a few miles from the Salt Lake City airport, they cannot hire sufficient staff. The Salt Lake metropolitan area has a population of 1.2 million people.
The closest population center to the proposed Franklin County prison is Fort Smith, with a metropolitan area of 232,000 people. Yet somehow, the governor, her legislative cronies, and Joe Profiri, her “expert” on prisons, say they can find staff—800 people—to work way out in rural Franklin County.
Based on population data, if the Franklin County mega prison goes through, it will be lucky to find 300 staff by 2032. That will limit its capacity to just 1,000 inmates at most, a far cry from the 3,000 promised by the governor.
Let’s look at cost. In 2021, Alabama started building two 4,000-bed prisons for a projected $1.3 billion. They’ve only finished half of one, and already it’s costing as much as what the two prisons were estimated to cost. After four years, they aren’t even close to completion.
Back in Arkansas, let’s look at how well the governor’s promises have held up. She, Profiri, and their legislative pals promised a 3,000-bed prison for a bargain price of $470 million. The price tag has since skyrocketed to $1 billion—or $825 million—or somewhere close; we really can’t say because they’ve changed the estimate so many times. They can stop on a dime and add hundreds of millions of dollars to their estimate—no pun intended.
Who cashes in, and who will be left holding the bag? By 2032, the governor and the legislators pushing this mega prison scam will all be out of office, thanks to term limits. Also long gone will be Profiri and his $200,000-a-year job giving advice. Our current governor will be in Washington, D.C., but the rest of us will be dealing with the fallout.
Counties like Benton, Washington, Sebastian, and Pulaski account for half the inmate population in Arkansas. Because of those four counties, in 2032 the state Correction Board will be screamed at for additional beds.
Counties like Boone, Greene, Grant, Garland, and Sevier? Like dozens of other rural counties, they’ll get the shaft. Their residents will pay taxes for prisons to hold inmates from four counties.
Thankfully, in the past session, Franklin County residents and their allies made legislative history when they defeated a funding measure for the mega prison. Not just once, but five times!
But today, while you’re back at work, raising families, and living your lives, the governor and her pals are tirelessly working behind the scenes to cram the mega prison down our throats. They’ve paid millions to woke California “consulting” companies like Vanir, who already are cashing in. Hard-working Arkansas citizens will be left holding the mega prison scam bag.
*these opinions are that of the author and not necessarily the publisher
