Arkansas Democrat-Gazette I Grant Lancaster
Academics and activists, many of them former convicts, shared their experiences Saturday at the third annual decARcerate conference, urging attendees to consider the long-term consequences of mass incarceration in Arkansas and the nation.
Eight people took the stage at the Central Arkansas Library System's Ron Robinson Theater and spoke on a variety of topics related to nonprofit decARcerate's goal of ending mass incarceration and replacing it with rehabilitative care and supportive communities.
A main theme of the four morning speakers was opposition to sentencing teenagers to life without parole. A speaker, Laura Nicks, decARcerate organizer Kaleem Nazeem, and at least two people in the audience said they had been given life sentences for crimes they did before they turned 18.
Most of the Arkansans were paroled after the 2017 Fair Sentencing of Minors Act outlawed life sentences without parole for minors in Arkansas.
By that time, Nicks had spent 11,960 days -- more than 32 years -- in prison, where she was raped by a guard, abused by adult inmates and held repeatedly in solitary confinement, she said.
Nicks was imprisoned at 17 after she helped hide the weapon her abusive boyfriend used to kill her aunt in 1985, she said.
"I was sentenced to death by incarceration," Nicks said.
Nicks gave birth to a daughter in the county jail during that time, who was taken to foster care because her parents were not trusted to raise the child. Nicks gave birth to a second child in prison, the son of the guard who raped her without any consequences, she said.
"I want to make this fight as personal for you as it is for me," Nicks said.
Since her release, Nicks has worked to expose the impact of imprisoning children and the impact of solitary confinement. In her address Saturday, she called for the state to limit life-without-parole sentences to people over the age of 21.
Why that age? Because the brain is still not fully developed by 21, Arkansans under that age are not able to legally smoke, drink alcohol, or gamble, Nicks said. If they can't be trusted to make those choices until 21, how can they be sentenced to life for choices they made before that age, she asked.
"Held accountable? Absolutely," Nicks said. "Sentenced to death? Absolutely not."
One of the speakers, to whom the conference was partially dedicated, was Dawn Jeffrey, a decARcerate board member currently held in the Pulaski County jail. Attendees viewed a pre-recorded message from Jeffrey after lunch at the day-long conference.
Jeffrey has been in jail for nearly 14 months on charges pending since the George Floyd protests in summer 2020, according to a biography in the event program, which refers to her as a "local blacktivist, grassroots organizer and political prisoner."
In May, Jeffrey pleaded guilty to having an unregistered destructive device -- a Molotov cocktail -- in a plea agreement that outlined how Jeffrey and others slashed tires and broke the windshields of Little Rock and North Little Rock police vehicles in August 2020, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has previously reported. The Molotov cocktail reportedly was thrown into a parking lot of police vehicles but did no damage.
Another speaker, Kim Wilson, a college professor who co-hosts a podcast called Beyond Prisons, spoke not specifically on the work of prison abolition, but on how activists can deal with burnout.
More specifically, Wilson harshly criticized men in the movement for not pulling their weight. Women and people who are feminine or non-binary do the lion's share of the work, especially logistical tasks like phone banking, organizing events and providing food and water, she said.
This work is essential but unappealing because it's not bold or "sexy," Wilson said, and activists often idolize women who are long-suffering and do superhuman amounts of work without giving themselves proper rest. She referenced civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
"This is not sustainable," Wilson said.
Wilson urged women and non-binary people in the movement to set boundaries, let themselves rest and hold men accountable if they aren't doing their share. She also challenged men to go "beyond performative and surface-level solidarity."
"We live in a society that doesn't care about us, but how are we demonstrating we care about each other?" Wilson asked.