Arkansas Democrat Gazette I Ainsley Platt
Conventional wisdom often goes that keeping guns out of criminals' hands reduces crime. But what if taking away their right to bear arms for life actually helps drive up the rate of recidivism?
That was the argument that a constituent of state Rep. Vivian Flowers made to her, prompting her to sponsor legislation during the past two regular sessions that would provide a path for convicted felons to regain their right to carry guns.
"Initially some of my Democratic colleagues thought, 'Well, I don't want more guns on the street.'" Flowers told an audience at the Central Arkansas Library System's Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock on Saturday morning.
"We have so many guns in this country, you could not put more guns on the street. But what this is meant to do is decriminalize individuals. Federal law and state law dictate that if you commit a felony -- you can be a kid who steals a bike of a certain value, and you just turned 18 -- for the rest of your life, you could not possess or own a firearm."
"It could prevent you from getting certain jobs, starting certain businesses, protecting your home the way all of us get to -- or some of us get to," Flowers continued.
And -- as a result of no longer being allowed to possess a gun -- being caught with one could spell prison time for otherwise law-abiding citizens who haven't reoffended in years.
Flowers, a Democrat who is running for mayor of Pine Bluff, was discussing the current state of incarceration in Arkansas and how the state got there at DecARcerate Arkansas' fifth annual conference, titled "Empowering Change, Confronting Injustice."
DecARcerate Arkansas was formed in 2015 to "end mass incarceration in Arkansas through community education, smart legislation, advocacy, and empowering the leadership of individuals personally affected by the criminal punishment system."
After her presentation, Flowers said in an interview that mass incarceration harms families in Arkansas and nationwide.
"We are incarcerating too many people," Flowers said. "It affects families. We don't think about people who have kids. Someone might say, 'Well, that's their responsibility,' but it becomes ours when they're unable to take care of their children. There are direct and indirect impacts for everybody in this state."
The only way to restore someone's gun rights under current state law is for them to receive a pardon from the governor, Flowers said.
"Now, this is typically perceived as an issue that not only a Democrat would not propose, but a Black woman would never propose," Flowers said. "But anyone who knows me knows I'm packing -- I'm a single woman, and it's my right. I do that and I do it lawfully. Other people should be able, if they so choose, to do so lawfully. The gentleman who brought this issue to me in my district right now, got so tired of waiting, and he got caught with a gun."
It has been over 20 years since her constituent was released from prison after serving time for a drug-related crime from "when he was a kid," Flowers said.
Now, he could go back to prison.
"That's why this law is important," Flowers said.
In 2021, Flowers was the lead House sponsor of Senate Bill 645, which would have provided a path for felons to regain the right to possess a firearm, but the bill died in a Senate committee.
In 2023, she sponsored a similar bill that passed the House but died in the Senate.
Flowers, who has been in the state Legislature since 2015, said that just before she took office, there was legislation to reduce recidivism and to slow prison expansion in the state. Since then, she said, the majority of bills modifying sentencing have strengthened criminal penalties, only exacerbating an existing problem.
"It starts with policy," Flowers said.
With 574 prison inmates per 100,000 residents, Arkansas has the third highest incarceration rate per capita in the country, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statisics compiled by the Washington, D.C.,-based Sentencing Project. The rate is also higher than that all other democratic countries according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit. Arkansas' population grew roughly 40% from 1925 to 2022 -- but the state's prison population grew by 1,258.9%, Flowers said, citing U.S. Department of Justice statistics.
"Arkansas is really ground zero for mass incarceration and expansion because the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any developed nation in the world -- and we in Arkansas have the highest incarceration of any state within the country," Flowers said.
Often, money is the driver of the conversation surrounding prisons, Flowers said.
For example, in 1902, the state purchased the land for what is now the Cummins Unit, but was then known as the Cummins State Prison Farm. Across 10,000 acres, convicts farmed the food that was eaten by prisoners statewide.
This, Flowers said, was the state's first foray into forced penal labor.
"It's often made to sound good, like, 'Well, we grow this food so inmates can feed themselves and deliver food to other institutions within the state,'" Flowers said. "But there is a profit motive involved to offset the money that's involved while providing jobs."
Such agricultural labor saves the state money, Flowers said, but she added that there is another side to it as well.
"You don't need 10,000 acres to build one building, right? And back then, we're talking about a little over a thousand people (incarcerated in the state)," Flowers said. "So you buy 10,000 acres because you know they're going to engage in industry. It's going to be a business. And if you only have a thousand people, what are you going to do so that you have enough people to work the farm?"
Why is it allowed in the first place? When the 13th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War, freeing American slaves, it included one exception -- for those convicted of crimes, the amendment didn't apply.
"That's the language that's not only in our federal Constitution, but in -- most constitutions in the country have this language in their state constitutions," Flowers said.
Flowers said she has introduced legislation each year since being elected to make such forced labor unconstitutional at the state level, but it's never even received a vote.
According to Flowers, even the current state Capitol building in Little Rock was built in part with inmate labor.
The irony? According to Flowers, the current state Capitol sits on the former site of Arkansas' first state prison.