Legislation

We supported this legislation which would have repealed the state "civil death" statute as a matter of cleaning up this unjust and unconstitutional law from the books.

In an important piece of criminal justice reform legislation, this bill would have slightly redefined in two ways the definitions of “felony” and “misdemeanor” in Rhode Island law.

We supported legislation which would have generally prohibited the detention of a juvenile under the age of 14 at the Rhode Island Training School.

We supported legislation which would have formally codified an ongoing program in our state Department of Corrections which provides medicated assisted treatment for individuals who are incarcerated.

We opposed legislation which would have inappropriately imposed a broad criminal record check requirement on individuals who seek to be engaged in the business-side of the medical marijuana industry, as well as on patients who may need this medicine to manage a health condition.

Though we support recreational marijuana legalization, we raised a number of concerns about this bill and called for amendments to strengthen the language.

We opposed legislation which would have allowed a court to appoint pro bono attorneys to act as animal advocates in animal cruelty and abuse cases.

We opposed legislation which would have increased the penalties for individuals convicted of unnecessary cruelty to an animal and would have placed a life prohibition on that individual owning or possessing an animal for life.

In a piece of legislation indicative of the way that the General Assembly often attempts to “carve out” new crimes out of offenses that already are enshrined in state statute, this legislation would have made simple assault, already a misdemeanor, a more serious felony if committed on a taxi driver.