Legislation

As a state with one of the most protective Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights statutes in the country, it is long past time for significant revisions to be made to this law. A number of bills to do that were introduced this session.

While most states employ a statewide certification or decertification system for law enforcement personnel, RI is one of only four states that does not. This legislation would have corrected that by creating strict criteria for the decertification of officers who engage in unacceptable conduct.

Although the imposition of expansive, mandatory background checks for employment is concerning in itself, even more concerning are those bills which attempt to implement background checks with a notably wide breadth and no meaningful restrictions.

A proposed article in the FY 2022 budget contained several important criminal justice proposals, including provisions providing for geriatric parole and making critical adjustments to statutes concerning community confinement, work-release wages, and parole reform.

As the likelihood of recreational marijuana legalization in RI advances, it has become even more critical to ensure that civil liberties and social equity concerns are prioritized and centered. Both the proposed FY 2022 budget and standalone legislation seek to do so, but far from comprehensively.

In opposing this legislation which would have lowered the age which would define an “elder” from 65 to 60 years old for the purposes of the criminal offense of “exploiting an elder,” we noted the extremely harsh penalties in the statute.

A bill introduced to remove the sunset provision in a law which established a team within the Department of Health to review drug-related overdoses prompted our opposition to language which continued to make law enforcement personnel central to the composition of the team.

An important piece of criminal justice legislation would have clarified the language surrounding the definition of “felony” and “misdemeanor” under Rhode Island law.

Though intended to address the issue of police misconduct, we opposed a piece of legislation introduced on behalf of the Attorney General which could have given the state more power to investigate those protesting or organizing against police abuse.