A prison at Disney World? ‘Possibilities are endless,’ Gov. DeSantis says
Image via Disney.

Summer-One-World-Ticket-948x640
'Somebody even said, "Maybe you need another state prison?"' DeSantis said Monday. 'Who knows?'

Could there ever be a prison near the Most Magical Place on Earth?

Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Disney’s special district could be used for other purposes when he spoke at a press conference near Disney World to announce lawmakers are working on new legislation to wrestle control back from Disney and add more oversight on Disney World’s monorails and theme park rides.

DeSantis mused about the 40 square miles that make up the special district now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

“People are like, well, ‘What should we do with this land? Maybe create a state park? Maybe try to do more amusement parks,’” DeSantis said, before adding the prison quip. “Somebody even said, ‘Maybe you need another state prison?’ Who knows? I just think that the possibilities are endless, and so that is now going to be analyzed to see what would make the most sense.”

The Governor appeared to make that suggestion in jest.

DeSantis appointed five new members to run Disney World’s governing board for the district earlier this year.

The Governor hinted about upcoming issues the state board could be looking at in the near future, such as privatizing the district’s utilities to help the district pay off its debt faster, giving pay raises to Disney World firefighters who have been vocal DeSantis allies and looking at expanding affordable housing.

“There’s been a lot of promises over the years about doing affordable housing for the workforce, and yet very little follow through,” DeSantis said. “We have an opportunity to look at that, so I think you’re going to see a lot of action from the state board’s perspective.”

In 2022, Disney announced it was setting aside 80 acres of its land for an affordable housing development for more than 1,300 units.

The company did not respond publicly to DeSantis’ comments Monday afternoon.

Earlier this month, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger called it “anti-Florida” and “anti-business” for DeSantis to retaliate against Disney for speaking out against the controversial Parental Rights in Education measure, which critics called the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Iger pointed to Disney’s value in Florida as the state’s largest employer and biggest tourist attraction. Disney is also planning to invest $17 billion at Disney World over the next 10 years which will add 13,000 more jobs, Iger said.

Gabrielle Russon

Gabrielle Russon is an award-winning journalist based in Orlando. She covered the business of theme parks for the Orlando Sentinel. Her previous newspaper stops include the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Toledo Blade, Kalamazoo Gazette and Elkhart Truth as well as an internship covering the nation’s capital for the Chicago Tribune. For fun, she runs marathons. She gets her training from chasing a toddler around. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter @GabrielleRusson .


10 comments

  • Andrew Finn

    April 17, 2023 at 6:11 pm

    Emperor DeSatan keeps telling people that he is not a dictator. Well, if you break down the word “dictator” —— he is not a “TATOR” – but he sure is a “DIC” !!!!!!!!!!!!

    • bill v

      April 17, 2023 at 6:44 pm

      Use 40 acres around Disney , right now some of the most expensive real estate in central florida to build a prison to continue a pissing match? Take your lumps and go, They will be around far after desantis.

      Add the banning of books and war on the LGBQT community. who else is he going to fight in the name of .. well.. what ever he is fighting for.

    • bill v

      April 17, 2023 at 6:44 pm

      Didnt mean to reply to your comment fyi 🙂

  • Hanumanbob

    April 17, 2023 at 8:01 pm

    So he’s going to punish the state’s biggest employer? What kind of stupidity is that? What’s the point? Disney will be around after no one remembers who DeSantis is

  • Acid Head Adelbert 👍

    April 17, 2023 at 9:32 pm

    With a homicide or suicide every 14 days in Ron’s understaffed and underfunded death camps (Florida DOC) he needs to build modern facilities and close the current concentration camps. Also fund adequate supervision for these human rights violation machines. Give people privileges and things to do besides kill other inmates and increase crime on Florida soil exponentially. A guy went in there years ago for driving on a suspended license, one year and six months sentence, and was killed by another inmate. In other words, because of Florida DOC malfeasance, he got the death penalty for driving on a suspended license.

  • Elliott Offen

    April 17, 2023 at 11:56 pm

    Ron’s obscene and inhumane prison system amounts to a crime against humanity. Of course because the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency and we have the biggest military on the planet, no one says a word. It’s not a haunted house because bad boys will be bad boys. It’s because they don’t build modern facilities and staff them adequately. Auschwitz was better run and more humane than Florida DOC..minus the mass killing by gas. Everything else is the same.

    • Andrew Finn

      April 20, 2023 at 10:50 am

      Our “obscene and inhumane prison system” is exactly what it is —— a prison —- not a Quality Inn or a Holiday Inn. If you don’t like to be there, then you should not have committed the crimes that got you there. Very simple. As far as the “mass killings by gas” — well, that should be reserved for and used on death row only !!!!!!

  • Earl Pitts American

    April 18, 2023 at 12:31 pm

    Good afternoon America,
    Im sorry you had to read thru those leftist whiney
    diaper babies nonsencial rants to get to me, Earl Pitts “Real Man of Genious” American’s post.
    Thank you America,
    Earl “Real Man of Genious” Pitts American

  • Andrew Finn

    April 20, 2023 at 10:50 am

    Our “obscene and inhumane prison system” is exactly what it is —— a prison —- not a Quality Inn or a Holiday Inn. If you don’t like to be there, then you should not have committed the crimes that got you there. Very simple. As far as the “mass killings by gas” — well, that should be reserved for and used on death row only !!!!!!

    • Dont Say FLA

      April 21, 2023 at 9:51 am

      Andrew Finn, you do realize a driving license can be suspended by accident when somebody at the licensing department fat fingers the license number, right? It all gets straightened out eventually, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t spend some time in your local jail right after the cops picked you up and took you there. You can end up in jail just because a cop with an attitude doesn’t like something about you. You can end up in jail over unpaid parking tickets your kid didn’t pay but the car is in your name. You might want jails not to be quite so fatal. It’s in your own interest and is especially in the interest of your children (or, more likely, your grandchildren) aged 17 to 25 too if you have or will have any of those. Kids just ain’t that bright when it comes to decision making and turning 18 years old isn’t a panacea for that but absolutely changes the legal rules for them.

Comments are closed.


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