Legislation

While supporting the goal of this legislation which would establish an alternative sentencing method for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness, we expressed concern that the legislation contained sparse detail on how the implementation of the program would occur.

In a move to ban a pervasive form of racial discrimination, we strongly supported a bill which would have expanded the definition of race under our state anti-discrimination laws to include “traits historically associated with race,” importantly including hair texture and protective hairstyles.

While we have no objection to the goal of educating hotel employees to ensure that they understand the issue of human trafficking, we opposed provisions within this bill which would obligate employees to report “suspicious” activities.

Building upon the important work of the Reproductive Privacy Act, the Equality in Abortion Act would have ensured that abortion care is covered by Medicaid and within the health insurance plans of state employees.

Legislation supported by the ACLU would have allowed for certain terminally ill patients to make knowing and competent decisions about death and peacefully determine the end of their lives with dignity, autonomy, and privacy.

As the ACLU and others press to remove law enforcement from schools, a bill introduced this session would have instead created a “school security committee” charged with facilitating the presence of “armed security personnel” in every school and promoting techniques for student surveillance.

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.

In addition to commenting on the importance of properly apportioned districts as a component of voting rights and racial justice, we urged several amendments to bills which would create a commissions charged with the task redrawing district lines.