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Committee hears amendment to remove slavery exception from state constitution; witness describes prison labor experiences

2475738 · March 3, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Representative Richardson presented HJR 1,002 to remove the constitutional clause that permits slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, and a witness with decades of incarceration experience described conditions he said amounted to forced labor.

Representative Richardson presented House Joint Resolution 1,002 to the House State Agencies Committee, proposing a constitutional amendment to repeal the clause that permits slavery or involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime from the Arkansas Constitution.

The sponsor described the amendment as an effort to "fully abolish slavery in all forms" in the state constitution and to give voters the opportunity to remove the exception that applies when someone is convicted of a crime.

Witness testimony: lived experience and claims about prison labor

Kaleem Naz…

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