Civil Rights

CFC Priorities for the 2011 Legislative Session

• Oppose all attempts at state-level immigration reform and oppose punitive anti-immigrant legislation.  

• Make sure all graduates of Arkansas high schools have the opportunity to pay in-state tuition at state colleges by passing the DREAM Act. 

• Discourage wage theft by increasing penalties for any employer who fails to pay workers.  

• Reform prison sentencing practices to make the parole process unbiased, reduce costs, and restore former inmates back into productive society.

• Create a Civil Rights Commission to mediate civil rights disputes and protect Arkansans from age, racial, and other discrimination.
• Expand youth diversion as an alternative to prosecution for youth who have committed a first-time or relatively minor offense.
• Expunge the criminal records of some first-time, minor criminal offenders upon release on parole.

Past Accomplishments

2009

2007

Sentencing reform was one of the priority issues chosen by our members at our state convention in August, 2006, and a significant expansion of drug courts for non violent offenders in Arkansas passed.  This act will lead to treatment alternatives to long-term incarceration for some people who need help dealing with alcohol or substance problems.  We helped defeat changes to the foster care and adoption system which would have banned unmarried couples or gays and lesbians from adopting or serving as foster parents.  And we successfully helped fight attempts to discriminate against immigrants.

2005

A bill to allow the State Police to act as Federal Immigration officers was passed despite our objections that it would lead to more racial profiling and abuses of anyone who might look like they could be an immigrant. A coalition of Latino activists fought this bill.