Legislation

On June 8th, Governor Chafee signed into law a bill supported by the ACLU, the RI State Nurses Association, RI NOW and other groups to restrict the shackling of pregnant prisoners.

The ACLU, the Public Defender and the Urban League all testified in opposition to legislation that would have required the collection of DNA samples from any person arrested for a felony.

The ACLU testified before the House and Senate Judiciary committees in opposition to legislation that would have dramatically limited the ability of prisoners to accrue “good time” days that shorten their sentence.

In yet another response to the Woodmansee case, the General Assembly considered, but ultimately took no action on, legislation to funnel prisoners deemed unable to reenter society into mental health facilities after the completion of their prison terms.

As in past years, the Affiliate testified against efforts to expand the scope of the state’s current sex offender registration and notification laws.

The Affiliate testified in opposition to mandatory ignition interlock requirements for all individuals convicted of driving under the influence of liquor or drugs.

The year got off to a positive start when, on his first day in office, Governor Chafee signed an executive order lifting a requirement that state agencies and business contractors use the deeply flawed federal E-Verify program to check the immigration status of workers.

The Affiliate also testified in opposition to legislation to require all communities to participate in the federal Secure Communities program, which requires an automatic check of the fingerprints of any arrested individual against immigration databases.

Consideration of a seemingly innocuous bill setting up the framework for a health insurance exchange to implement the new federal health care reform law took a nasty turn when Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed inserted a surprise anti-abortion amendment into the bill.