A Failure in Leadership (Editorial)

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ failure to inform local officials and residents about the state’s plans to build a 3,000-bed prison near Charleston has rightly angered those officials and residents.

Among those who say they had no prior knowledge of the project until it was announced or until just a few days before its announcement are Franklin County Judge Rickey Bowman, Franklin County Sheriff Johnny Crocker, Charleston Mayor Mike Baumgartner, state Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, and state Rep. Mark Berry, R-Ozark.

“This was not handled correctly by our Governor’s Office,” Bowman said. “All of our local and state officials were kept in the dark.” And Berry issued a statement saying the decision to build the prison “was done in secrecy without the voices of legislators, county officials and more importantly, the citizens of Franklin County.”

Sanders says the prison is needed for public safety reasons and touts its economic development potential, noting the hundreds of jobs it will create and the hundreds of millions of dollars in investment it will require.

Those are valid arguments, but they are arguments the area’s residents had a right to hear before the state’s $2.95 million purchase of 815 acres for the prison.