Opponents of proposed Letcher County prison say proposed federal legislation could restrict oversight

National and local groups against a proposed prison in Letcher County say they’re worried proposed legislation could restrict oversight on its construction.

The proposed federal prison would be the fourth in southeast Kentucky. The $500 million project has been spearheaded by Representative Hal Rogers since 2006.

Section 223 of the House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies budgetary bill for next fiscal year would give exclusive jurisdiction over any legal action towards the prison to the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Artie Ann Bates with Concerned Letcher Countians says that could affect inmates housed at the prison from outside Kentucky.

“A lot of the folks in the DC area, because there's no federal prison there, or even a state prison, they get housed in the mid-atlantic district facilities,” Bates said. “And so there are a lot of them in the existing three prisons, federal prisons here.”

Emily Posner, who works with Bates as a member of the Build Communities not Prisons coalition, says the legislation could undermine judicial review, and would kneecap environmental concerns involving the National Environmental Policy Act, which regulates federal agencies.

“Inserting politics into what should be a separation of powers question leads to a place that I'm not sure we want to go in terms of whether or not we have a healthy democracy or not.”

The EPA is currently accepting public comment on an environmental impact statement released earlier this month .

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