Legislation

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.

Legislation was introduced to ensure both that no student can be excluded from a school activity due to a lack of income and that no parent or guardian can be compelled to give money that they cannot afford for their student to participate in these activities.

We supported this legislation that would address the issue of unequal pay for female workers, and would ban harmful employment practices that allow employers to ask for the former salary of a prospective employee while barring employees from discussing their own salaries with others.

Rhode Island’s current minimum wage law contains an exemption for “domestic service” workers, a group of employees comprised largely of women, BIPOC individuals, and immigrants; we supported a piece of legislation which would include such workers under the minimum wage requirements.

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.

We opposed legislation that would create a presumption of intoxication if a person is injured or dies on the job and is found, through a blood test, to have alcohol, an unlawfully prescribed drug, or a prescribed drug that has not been used properly in their system.