Though the number of recorded marijuana offenses in Arkansas declined modestly from 2018 to 2019, arrests remain far higher than they were a decade ago. A bill in the state legislature aims to change that.
More than 87,000 Arkansans with felony convictions are barred from registering to vote, according to a recent report from The Sentencing Project. Most of those people are not currently incarcerated.
Evictions in Arkansas can snowball from criminal charges to arrests to jail time because of a 119-year-old law that mostly impacts female, Black and low-income renters. Even prosecutors have called it unconstitutional.
Across the state, from Bentonville to Crossett, thousands of Arkansans have taken to the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest police brutality. Some are seasoned organizers. Some are first-time protesters. Some have served on task forces, met with elected leaders, received death threats. They are racially diverse, and they span generations. And they have decided, despite a pandemic that put them at risk when gathering, to keep coming out. Here are a few of their stories.
Inmates at Arkansas's Cummins Unit say guards treated them like “lepers” as COVID-19 tore through the penitentiary.
From March 17 to April 17, the Garland County District Court issued 2,376 warrants for failure to pay fines and fees, according to the state Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). The number of warrants in Garland County far outpaces those issued by other counties in the same time period: Crittenden County issued 48 warrants on the West Memphis docket, and Pulaski County issued 62 on the Little Rock docket.
But the state may be losing patience with the county.
The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network is an independent, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. Our work is re-published by partner newsrooms across the state.
