QAnon Conspiracy Theorists Have Taken Over a Prison
And they’re vowing to fill it with trafficked children.
PROMOTERS OF QANON and other lurid pro-Trump conspiracy theories will head to California next month to visit a women’s prison. But unlike other QAnon believers who have been incarcerated for crimes like murder, kidnapping, and storming the U.S. Capitol, these conspiracy theorists won’t be inmates—they’ll be in charge!
Thanks to $1.6 million in donations so far, the Leo Chesney Correctional Facility—a decommissioned minimum security prison in the town of Live Oak, north of Sacramento—is set to become “Peace of Heaven,” a sanctuary for children rescued from supposed child sex-trafficking operations.
“We could transform that from a women’s prison to a children’s paradise!” Pastor David Bryan, the far-right mastermind behind the prison takeover, said about the prison in a June 2025 interview.
From August 28 to August 30, conspiracy theorists like former CBS News reporter Lara Logan, QAnon promoter Ann Vandersteel, and recently freed Colorado election clerk Tina Peters will appear at the “Rev17 2.0” conference at Bryan’s church, located near the prison in Live Oak, California, to raise money for the prison overhaul. While Rev17 2.0 might sound like the kind of alphanumeric string you might use in a password, it actually signals the apocalyptic vision of the organizers: The name is an allusion to chapter 17 in the Book of Revelation—the one about the Whore of Babylon and the Beast. (The 2.0, meanwhile, is a bit more pedestrian: It just means it’s the second annual conference of this kind.)
The proceeds from tickets, which range from $99 for general admission to $299 for VIPs, will go to funding the reno. VIP tickets include a tour of the prison, which became inactive in 2011 after state budget cuts.
But the Peace of Heaven children’s sanctuary faces long odds before it can come to fruition, including