Legislation

Building upon the important work of the Reproductive Privacy Act, the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act would have ensured that abortion care is covered by Medicaid and within the health insurance plans of state employees.

Two pieces of legislation sought to address the presence of SROs and the need for mental health personnel on school campuses – one positively, and one negatively.

As a state with one of the most protective Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights statutes in the country – imposing numerous barriers to disciplining wayward officers – it is long past time for significant revisions to be made to this law.

We opposed a provision in a bill addressing disability benefits based on occupationally-related PTSD for first responders, noting that it could allow police officers to recoup disability benefits if they alleged to suffer from PTSD from misconduct that they have themselves inflicted on a civilian.

We supported legislation which would have barred private prisons from operating in the state of Rhode Island entirely and limited the ability for carceral facilities in Rhode Island to cooperate with ICE.

We supported legislation that would have both renewed the data collection provisions and annual report requirements of the CCPRA and imposed more stringent requirements on the collection and analysis of the data.

We supported legislation that would have restricted use of force by police and put in place reporting requirements for officers who witness use of force.

Following the 2021 implementation of a statewide infrastructure for a body-worn camera (BWC) program, we supported legislation which would have put in place statutory policies regarding BWCs.

We strongly opposed a bill which would have banned terms like “racial guilt” in the classroom, barred the use of school books that have a "viewpoint," and required school staff to address students by “the pronouns associated with their biological gender.”