The phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States has been attributed to a number of factors, including punitive legislation, neo-liberal economic policies, and a "culture of control" that supports continual carceral growth. Little research has examined how these national and transnational phenomena express themselves in communities. This study examines the discourse and politics of jail expansion in a Midwestern and politically liberal community. Through in-depth interviews with local officials, civic leaders, and community activists; participant observation at community meetings; and archival work with local media, this research finds that advocacy for a 'justice campus'—a new complex of carceral facilities that would exponentially expand the county's capacity to incarcerate youth and adults—relied on strategies and rhetoric that reframed incarceration expansion as a benevolent and curative initiative in order to make it acceptable in the political-cultural context of the community. By examining one community's articulation of mass incarceration, this study pays particular attention to the ways that national logics shape and constrain local efforts, even as local officials frame their efforts as distinct from—even as a form of resistance to—the carceral practices of the state and nation. In addition, this study's examination of community activists' resistance to expansion suggests ways in which local dispositions towards incarceration are both shaped by national logics and subject to contestation.