By Cameron McWhirter
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ark. -- Most signs along the bucolic roads of this conservative rural community in Republican-led Arkansas carry exhortations to follow Jesus or offer stump-grinding services and hay for sale.
These days, new signs sit in the prairie grass: "SAY NO TO THE PRISON! Keep the country, country."
Plans for a 3,000-bed prison on 815 acres of rocky pasture south of the broad Arkansas River, led by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, face an unlikely rebellion from a group of MAGA conservatives. The feud has gone from nasty to nastier, and both sides say they are following what President Trump would want.
"Some people want this to be a fight over the money and different things, " Gov. Sanders said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "But what it really is is, do we care about the safety and security of our citizens, or do we not?"
Johnny Crocker, Franklin County's sheriff, is among opponents who say the prison is an example of government intrusion and waste.
"In the state of Arkansas, we're a very split Republican Party," said Crocker, wearing a black cowboy hat in his office, thick with mementos from his decades in the Green Berets. "It's big government against small government...These people want power. And that's simple."
The intraparty prison conflict has seeped into Board of Corrections appointments, state budget discussions, a GOP primary -- and some odder places.
J.B. Jackson, who works in supply-chain risk assessment and lives across the road from the proposed site, runs a popular Facebook page called "Arkansas Alcatraz." It features anti-prison memes, including one of Sanders as a green-skinned Grinch. He also has lined his fence with plastic skeletons and placards reading, "This Prison is Going to Kill Arkansas."
"I never gave a rat's crap about politics," he said. "Now I have a third of the legislature following my Facebook page."
Word got out
Sanders, 43, was elected Arkansas's first female governor in 2022 after serving as Trump's White House press secretary. She is seen as a possible future presidential candidate and is seeking a second term this fall, which she is expected to win.
During her campaign, she pledged to reduce crime and fix the prison-overcrowding problem in Arkansas, which has the nation's third-highest incarceration rate per capita behind Louisiana and Mississippi, according to federal data.
Central to that, she has said, is a large new prison. The proposed facility would cost about $825 million, according to her administration. Critics have argued that factors like the rocky ground will drive costs higher, and that the remote location will hinder staffing.
Marc Dietz, 55, a businessman and rancher who operates a family-owned radio station in Ozark, one of two county seats, broke the story that the prison was planned for Franklin County. He said many locals felt blindsided.
"We're a small county, not enough votes, and she thought she'd run roughshod," he said.
Sanders told the Journal the state didn't tell Franklin County residents about the plan to put it there until after the government purchased the land -- for about $3 million -- to avoid a bidding war. The location, near a growing part of Northwest Arkansas, made it a good site, she said.
"This wasn't something where we just kind of threw a dart at the board and hoped it would work out," she said. "This took months of research." She said local officials, whom she declined to name, were apprised and enthusiastic -- until vocal opposition erupted.
'Dumped on us'
Franklin County, with about 17,000 residents, is close-knit and deeply conservative. Locals give directions to out-of-towners using churches as landmarks, and a Masonic lodge was promoting a squirrel hunt one recent day. Trump carried the county in 2024 with 80% of the vote; Sanders won it with 76%. But it is also known for its independent character. The Ozark school district sports teams are called the Hillbillies, their mascot a bearded man gripping a shotgun.
Bradley Cobb, 47, a UPS driver and a preacher in Charleston, another county seat, said he, his wife and their voting-age children all support anti-prison candidates. A Republican, he said he can't bring himself to vote for a Democrat, but he won't vote for Sanders in the fall. Some friends, he said, have taken to calling themselves RASH for "Republicans Against Sarah Huckabee."
"It's how it was dumped on us that most people are upset about," he said.
Since Sanders announced the prison plan, funding for it has stalled in the state Senate, blocked by a handful of Republican senators like state Sen. Ron Caldwell. "The problem is that I pay attention to the money and read bills more than other people do," he said. For that, he added, Sanders "tried to throw me out of a job."
Caldwell referenced a recent effort, when the governor and her supporters backed GOP primary challengers to try -- unsuccessfully -- to unseat him and another prison opponent, state Sen. Bryan King.
State Sen. Bart Hester, president pro tempore of the Arkansas Senate, said he and most GOP legislators back the Franklin County location, but a few holdouts -- whom he called not MAGA but "centrist Republicans" -- are blocking the move.
"The people of Arkansas are less safe today than they could be because we have a few Republicans aligning with the Democrats on this issue," he said.
Sanders said Arkansas needs more prison beds at facilities that offer inmates various services. Currently, the state spends money to send overflow prisoners to county jails, many of which are also packed. "We're going to look at every option, whether it's Franklin County, more bed expansion out of state, whatever it takes," she said.
Of the opponents, Sanders said, "We welcome them to come to the table with ideas."
Crocker, the county sheriff, isn't done.
"I'm a Republican, and I voted for most of them, but now, seeing the truth, I think we need to clean house," he said. "Like Trump said, drain the swamp. Well, there's a swamp in Little Rock right now, and it needs to go away."
Jackson, standing on his porch, said he is preparing to mobilize a statewide effort to oppose Sanders's prison plan if she tries to push it again.
"I'm going to light her up," he said. "Our governor wants to be president. That piece of property is going to stop her."
Write to Cameron McWhirter at Cameron.McWhirter@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2026 11:42 ET (15:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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