Legislation

“Moral Turpitude” is a legally ambiguous and antiquated term that could be found in several professional licensing statutes as a basis on which to deny or revoke a person’s professional license. We testified in support of this legislation to eliminate the phrase from those statutes.

While addressing the important problem of lengthy prison sentences for juveniles who are charged as adults, a weakened version of this policy ultimately passed within the FY 2022 budget.

We strongly supported legislation which would make two important advances towards enhanced criminal justice policy in Rhode Island.

For individuals in RI on green cards, a conviction of many misdemeanor charges can have a severe and overly punishing – and unexpected – impact. This legislation would have decreased the maximum possible misdemeanor by one day to ensure that such harsh consequences don’t flow from a minor offense.

This important legislation would have provided individuals protection from prosecution for certain drug crimes if they had contacted police to address any medical emergency, not just a drug overdose.

We opposed legislation that would impose a $300 “substance abuse education fee” for any conviction of driving under the influence or for a violation of refusal to submit to a breathalyzer.

One of many bills which would generate a “new” crime would create specific penalties for individuals who commit larceny by stealing packages from either a house, office, or other dwelling.

Two separate pieces of legislation introduced this session would have addressed different aspects of sex work decriminalization.

We opposed this bill which would create an “animal abuse registry” similar to the registration requirements already in effect for persons convicted of sex offenses.