News & Commentary

Bolstered by similar national trends, Rhode Island has enacted several positive and significant criminal justice reform measures over the past few years. Unfortunately, every step forward by the General Assembly seems to be accompanied by a step back.

Under a stipulation signed by R.I. Superior Court Judge Robert Krause and entered today, the RI Department of Corrections (DOC) will release from custody a man that ACLU of Rhode Island attorneys argued was unlawfully being held in prison despite a unanimous decision by the R.I. Parole Board to release him on supervised parole.

A habeas corpus petition filed today by ACLU of Rhode Island attorneys argues that an inmate is unlawfully being held in prison despite a decision by the R.I. Parole Board that he had demonstrated that he was qualified and ready for release on supervised parole.

A legal claim for damages has been sent today to the City of Pawtucket over a School Resource Officer’s (SRO) gratuitous and unlawful handcuffing and arrest of a 13-year-old African-American middle school honors student. The damages claim was submitted by ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney Shannah Kurland as a required legal prerequisite to the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the student, Tre’sur Johnson.

The 2019 Top 10. A completely unexhaustive list of (some of) the most absurd civil liberties violations we encountered this year. 

Responding to a lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU of RI, a federal judge has, with the State's consent, entered a temporary restraining order against the Department of Human Services’ continued use of procedurally deficient notices that have demanded SNAP recipients reimburse the state for overpayments that they purportedly received years earlier. The notice, the ACLU alleged in the lawsuit, failed to provide sufficient information for recipients to determine its accuracy.

In addition to marking our 60th Anniversary, 2019 was also our strongest year ever defending the rights of all in the Ocean State.  We were active in more than 50 lawsuits, lobbied on a record number of bills, and our work behind the scenes is more robust than ever. Our donors’ ongoing support makes all of this possible, so if you’re a donor, thank you. If you haven’t yet contributed to the ACLU of RI, please make a tax-deductible year-end contribution today. To give you a clear look at the impact that your support can have, here are three victories that stand out from our 60th year fighting for civil liberties in Rhode Island:

For the third time in as many years, cooperating attorneys for the ACLU of Rhode Island have filed a class-action lawsuit related to the state’s troubled UHIP computer system. This latest suit, filed in U.S. District Court by ACLU cooperating attorneys Ellen Saideman and Lynette Labinger, challenges the adequacy of notices sent by the state Department of Human Services (DHS) to some SNAP recipients, demanding that they reimburse the state for benefits overpayments that they purportedly received years earlier.

The R.I. Department of Human Services illegally used an employee’s non-conviction criminal history to terminate her employment, an ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney has claimed in a charge of discrimination filed with the R.I. Commission for Human Rights on behalf of Coventry resident Cheryl Robbio.