Little Rock, AR – A member of the Arkansas Board of Corrections has challenged the need for a proposed 3,000-bed prison, advocating for less expensive alternatives in an email sent to legislators on July 21, 2025. Lee Watson’s stance, detailed in communications reported by multiple outlets, has sparked a broader discussion about the state’s correctional strategy, with construction already underway in Franklin County under Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ plan. As of 3:02 PM CDT, Saturday, July 26, 2025, the issue remains unresolved.
Watson, speaking only for himself and not the board, acknowledges the state’s need for a new prison but disputes the 3,000-bed proposal. He argues that the board has neither requested nor been presented with evidence supporting such a large facility. Citing a county jail backlog of 1,600 inmates—consistent for recent years and part of a total prison population of 16,706 as of March 2025—he asserts that a 3,000-bed prison would leave 1,400 beds vacant. “Our needs don’t support a 3,000-bed facility when the county jail backup is 1,600,” Watson wrote, attributing the figure to former Secretary of Corrections Joe Profiri, whom he described as pulling the number “out of the Arizona hot air.” Profiri, appointed by Sanders in January 2023 and removed by the board in January 2024, had overseen early planning before his dismissal.
Watson proposes a 1,000-bed prison in western or northwestern Arkansas to serve as an intake facility, reducing transportation costs for regional sheriffs, alongside three to five 100- to 200-bed community correction facilities in Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas for non-violent offenders and parole violators. He also calls for completing a 500-bed expansion at the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, approved in 2023 with $75 million under former Governor Asa Hutchinson, though an additional $50 million is needed due to rising costs. Profiri canceled this project in early 2023, a decision Watson notes delayed progress that could have reduced the backlog to 1,100 beds by now. “Arkansas has a 500 million-dollar problem, and a 1 billion-dollar 3,000 bed prison is not the solution,” he concluded, urging a “prudent path forward” that addresses unserved warrants, ended early-release policies, and population growth.
Governor Sanders, through spokesperson Sam Dubke, counters that the bed shortage exceeds the jail tally, encompassing unserved warrants and recidivism risks. “Law enforcement officials across Arkansas agree we need to build a new prison with adequate capacity to improve public safety and get violent, repeat offenders off our streets,” Dubke said. Republican Sen. Ben Gilmore of Crossett, an ex-officio member of the legislative oversight panel, and Rep. Howard Beaty of Crossett, co-chair of the corrections subcommittee, support this view. Gilmore, who backed a 2023 Sanders law increasing sentences for serious offenders, argues the 3,000-bed facility “right sizes the system,” citing thousands of unserved warrants and early-release absconders. Beaty criticizes the board’s “decades of mismanagement,” including misuse of the Emergency Powers Act for premature releases, calling Watson’s analysis “superficial” and the board’s inaction “gross negligence.”
Despite opposition, the board has approved the Sanders administration’s purchase of over 800 acres in Franklin County, hiring Vanir Construction Management, which estimated a preliminary $825 million cost (with similar facilities exceeding $1 billion elsewhere). A $750 million appropriation failed in the spring legislative session due to local resistance, though $330 million and $75 million from prior allocations are in use. Democratic Rep. Andrew Collins, co-vice chair of the Legislative Council’s subcommittee, agrees with Watson that 3,000 beds are excessive, advocating for a “right-sized, cost-effective, targeted approach” over an “ill-conceived and exorbitantly expensive” one, citing Arkansas’s world-high incarceration rate of 912 per 100,000 outside non-democratic countries.
The dispute extends to legal battles. The board sued in December 2023 to block laws enhancing Sanders’ control over the corrections secretary, winning a preliminary injunction upheld by the Arkansas Supreme Court in June 2025. A separate Freedom of Information Act suit by Attorney General Tim Griffin against the board remains active after a May 2025 reversal. Watson notes the board’s non-political intent was drawn into this “political fray,” a claim Gilmore calls disingenuous due to alleged inaccuracies. The Batesville Tribune will follow developments and welcomes community perspectives.
