Legislation

In June, the House approved legislation prohibiting any person convicted of a sex offense with a minor from holding employment in a wide range of jobs, even if that job never involved interaction with a child.

In June, the House approved legislation overhauling the state’s sex offender registration and community notification laws, replacing them with federal standards so costly that few states have chosen to implement them.

A set of bills dealing with the state’s littering laws will result in thousands of dollars of fines for Rhode Islanders, and thousands of dollars in proceeds for local law enforcement.

Another part of the Attorney General’s package of legislation dealing with computer crimes carried still more concerns about the breadth of these changes.

While undermining the medical marijuana program, the General Assembly failed to make productive changes in the state’s “War on Drugs” by expanding the state’s Good Samaritan Act.

A prime example of how quickly legislation can go from good to bad came in the form of legislation, passed by the Senate in June, that purported to strengthen the state’s laws against human trafficking, but in fact undermined the law entirely.

Rhode Island law generally makes larceny a felony if the item stolen is worth $1,500 or more, but legislation passed by both the House and the Senate drastically undercuts this limit, allowing for larceny of farm products to be considered a felony if the farm product is worth just $250.

The state’s medical marijuana program suffered a huge setback when, in June, the House and Senate passed Attorney General legislation promoting discrimination and harassment of marijuana cardholders without cause.

The General Assembly is also considered a variety of legislation aimed at firearms possession and use, including a number of bills imposing mandatory sentences.