Film on proposed prison to screen
“…the Chickamauga Nation has asserted claims to the land and said burial grounds, ceremonial markers and other historical links connect the Native American tribe to the site.”
River Valley Democrat-Gazette
PENNY WEAVER
CHARLESTON — A national nonprofit is set to debut a documentary film featuring the story of Charleston area residents who oppose the state’s proposed 3,000bed prison at Mill Creek Mountain.
The founder of the group said they want to amplify the voices of the people.
“We focus on the human impact,” Spike Cohen, founder and president of You Are The Power, said in an interview last week. “We hope that people hear from the families that have been impacted by this.
“We want the public to know about it, we want the legislature to know about it, we want Gov. (Sarah) Huckabee Sanders to know about it,” Cohen said.
“The Fight for Human Respect at Mill Creek Mountain” will be screened Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave. in Little Rock. The free event will include open discussion, Cohen said. People interested in attending are asked to register via Ticket Tailor.
State lawmakers and Sanders have been invited to attend and all are welcome, according to Cohen.
A request for comment from the Governor’s Office was not answered by press time Friday. You Are The Power emphasizes human respect, and Cohen said the purpose of the documentary is to raise awareness about the planned prison’s impact on local residents and also to further their opposition against it.
“They are horrified at what this will do to their community, and I don’t blame them,” he said. “Even just the prison itself would be a threat to their way of life.”
ORIGINS
On Oct. 31, 2024, Sanders announced the state had purchased about 815 acres of land for $2.95 million at Mill Creek Mountain in Franklin County, about seven miles north of Charleston.
The property buy was made with a plan to build what would be the state’s largest prison on the site. The idea is to alleviate chronic prison overcrowding across the state, which has spilled over into county jails for years, the governor said.
Local residents, who say they were blindsided by the announcement, mobilized in opposition to a prison at that site.
Groups were formed to fight against the facility: the Franklin County and River Valley Coalition for one, Gravel and Grit for another. Since early 2025, the Chickamauga Nation has asserted claims to the land and said burial grounds, ceremonial markers and other historical links connect the Native American tribe to the site.
Sanders and other supporters are steadfast.
“This remains the best site for a new prison as we begin the next steps in the construction process,” the governor wrote to lawmakers in June.
Opposition to the multimillion-dollar project also arose in the legislature, where funds for the prison failed multiple times last spring. The project remains stalled.
‘LIKE DRINKING FROM A FIRE HOSE’
You Are The Power was created by Cohen to support activism centered around human respect: “treating people like people,” the group’s website states.
Cohen retired in 2017 after success as a web design company owner and began to focus on political messaging and activism. He is a Libertarian activist and the party’s 2020 vice presidential candidate.
You Are The Power aims to help defend citizens against overreaching local and state officials and the Mill Creek Mountain project is listed as one of the organization’s “Freedom Fund” calls to action.
“Finding causes is unfortunately like drinking from a fire hose,” Cohen said. “We will process roughly 1,500 causes this year.
“News is getting around that we’re very successful,” he said.
The grassroots opposition to the state prison on land in Franklin County was pitched to You Are The Power by multiple local activists, Cohen said. The group decided to produce a full documentary film after learning the scope of the issue, he noted.
“We realized very quickly this is a story that needs to be told more than we usually do,” Cohen said.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
Cohen’s group starts with significant fact-finding efforts once a particular cause is on their radar.
“We do hundreds of hours of prep work and vetting,” Cohen said. “We want to make sure we have all the facts.”
What they found in Franklin County is a prison plan that “threatens a way of life of an entire community,” the activist said.
“We had a ton of people that were very very excited to talk to us about it. They’re scared,” Cohen said. “They’re horrified.”
The organization explored issues such as the flow of prisoners entering and leaving a prison site at Mill Creek Mountain, infrastructure concerns and the massive shift a large prison would bring to quiet rural life in rural Franklin County, he said.
“This makes no sense,” Cohen said. “There are other towns that want it.
“They want it to be a quiet way of life, and we believe they should be able to have that.”
LOCAL VOICES
Cohen said You Have The Power aims to share factual information and present the perspective of the people involved in issues like the proposed prison at Mill Creek Mountain.
“We don’t lobby. We let the people lobby,” Cohen said. “Government has the power of your consent.”
Featured in “The Fight for Human Respect at Mill Creek Mountain” are local residents including Pastor Joe Hobbs at Oak Grove Church; Chief Justin Flanagan of the Chickamauga Nation; Don Sosebee, whose land borders the proposed prison property; Sen. Bryan King, R-green Forest, a vocal opponent of the new prison on the selected land; and area residents Natalie Cadena, Adam Watson and Dana Soller of Gravel and Grit.
In Charleston, the documentary was screened in February to positive reviews.
“It is so impactful and important,” Shannon Sosebee Mcchristian said online in a Gravel and Grit discussion after seeing the film. Mcchristian is Don Sosebee’s daughter. “Hearing from those that are directly impacted was very moving,” Eric Spicer of Charleston said.
In the film, J.B. Jackson, who lives across the road from the proposed prison site, notes: “My kid gets off the bus at the prison gate.”
Sanders is heard in the documentary as she spoke to Ozark radio station True Country Radio 92.7 KDYN in announcing the land purchase.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars will go into this property and into this project, right there in Franklin County, in the Charleston area,” the governor said.
