Legislation

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.

The ACLU has long opposed the introduction of SROs to school campuses in RI, as their presence can inappropriately redefine normal adolescent behaviors into issues of criminal justice. Two pieces of legislation would address the presence of SRO’s on campuses – one positively, and one negatively.

Prompted by the re-entrance into an agreement with ICE by the Wyatt Detention Center, legislation was introduced 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.

This legislation would have placed even more stringent criminal record check requirements on Medicaid- funded personal care attendants than are currently required.

To our knowledge, Rhode Island remains the only state to still have a statute on the books which declares any person serving a life sentence in prison “civilly dead.”