Bill seeks to fully abolish slavery in Arkansas
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A bill moving through the Arkansas legislature would give Arkansans the opportunity to vote whether to fully ban slavery in the state.
Catch up quick: Slavery is still allowed as punishment for a crime, meaning incarcerated people can be forced to work without pay. If the bill passes and voters approve, prisoners would have to be paid for their work.
- The bill's sponsor, Rep. Jay Richardson (D-Fort Smith), told Axios incarcerated people should not be treated as indentured servants and should still be paid for their work as they contribute to the economy.
The big picture: The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the U.S. except as punishment for a crime.
- Advocates say the exception has enabled the exploitation of people convicted of felonies, which disproportionately impacts Black people, who are imprisoned at nearly five times the rate of white people, according to a study by research and advocacy center The Sentencing Project.
- The loophole also served as the foundation for states to pass Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, which criminalized everyday activities to make it easier to imprison them, Axios' Shawna Chen writes.
The latest: In recent years, some states that have continued to allow the exception have moved to fully abolish slavery.
- In 2022, voters in Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont and Oregon voted to strike language from their state constitutions allowing slavery in some cases.
State of play: Nationally, about half of people in prison have a work assignment inside the prison, Prison Policy Initiative spokesperson Wanda Bertram told Axios.
- Incarcerated people in Arkansas are not paid for the work they do for the Department of Corrections or the Correctional Industries program.
- While those working directly for private companies are required to be paid the minimum wage, states can also sell prison labor or prison-made goods to companies, Bertram said in an email.
Flashback: A similar bill was filed in the last regular session in 2023. It died in committee.
What's next: If passed, inmates would not necessarily be paid the state's minimum wage. The state would have to set rules for how much they are paid, Richardson said.
Go deeper: Forced labor persists in the U.S. food supply chain