A renewed effort to end prison slavery in Arkansas has failed to advance—again.

On April 4, Arkansas House Bill 1002 died in committee. The bill was blocked from moving forward by lawmakers prioritizing other constitutional amendments for the 2026 ballot. The bill, introduced by Rep. Jay Richardson, would have allowed voters to decide whether to remove the exception to the state’s slavery ban, which currently permits slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.

Advocates say this exception is the legal foundation for forcing incarcerated people to work without pay, often under coercive and degrading conditions.

“It made me feel like a slave.”

The bill’s failure deals a major blow to campaigners like Laura Nicks, who spent decades in prison after receiving a sentence as a teenager. Nicks described working long hours in the field under extreme heat, with few water breaks and no pay.

40/29 News reports,

“You’re placed in what’s called ‘hoe squad,’ and hoe squad is where you go out into the field every day and you work behind a hoe, whether it’s in a garden, or if you don’t have anything, you could literally just hoe all the way to a dirt patch,” she said. “It made me feel useless. It made me feel like a slave. You’re in a hot kitchen slaving away at cooking or in a hot field. It really diminishes you.”

She said she wasn’t paid for the hours in the hot sun she worked with few water breaks, and she said there were punishments for refusing to work.

“You were handcuffed and shackled, thrown on the back of the truck, locked into the prison,” she said. “And thrown into solitary confinement.”

The Supreme Court overturned life sentences for juveniles, leading to Nicks’ release in 2017. Today, she is advocating for those still inside: “Yes, we committed a crime. But we got to prison to be rehabilitated. Not used and abused.”

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