News & Commentary

Eight organizations – including the RI ACLU, the RI Commission for Human Rights, the RI State Council of Churches, the Urban League of RI and the American Friends Service Committee – have today issued a statement that commends Governor Lincoln Chafee for seeking to prevent the institution of federal death penalty charges against Jason Wayne Pleau, and calls on the U.S. Attorney to cease those efforts.

The ACLU commends Governor Lincoln Chafee’s signing into law a bill restricting the shackling of pregnant prisoners.  The law generally bars the restraint of pregnant incarcerated women by handcuffs, shackles, and waist restraints during transport, labor, delivery, and recovery, and allows only “medically appropriate” restraints to be used during the second and third trimester of an inmate’s pregnancy. This legislation, which does permit corrections’ officials to use the least restrictive restraints necessary for individuals perceived as a security risk, will protect women and their children from any unnecessary harm during and after childbirth.

The ACLU applauds yesterday’s House passage of legislation restricting the shackling of pregnant prisoners. The bill, supported by the ACLU, the RI State Nurses Association, the RI Medical Society, RI NOW, DARE and other groups is sponsored by Rep. Donna Walsh. It generally bars the restraint of pregnant incarcerated women by handcuffs, shackles, and waist restraints during transport, labor, delivery, and recovery, and allows only “medically appropriate” restraints to be used during the second and third trimester of an inmate’s pregnancy. 

The Coalition Against Racial Profiling has called upon the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association to provide a public accounting of their withdrawal of support for the Comprehensive Racial Profiling Prevention Act. The Coalition said such an accounting was necessary to follow up on a legislative committee chair’s call for further negotiations between the police chiefs and the community to reach agreement on a revised bill.

The  Rhode  Island  ACLU  has  today called  upon  Governor  Lincoln  Chafee  to  issue certificates of registration to three medical marijuana dispensaries approved by the Department of Health, notwithstanding a threatening letter sent last week by U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha suggesting that those dispensaries may be criminally liable under federal law.

With the support of more than two dozen community and civil rights organizations, three teenage victims of racial profiling spoke today at a news conference to stress the urgent need to pass legislation designed to strengthen state laws against racial profiling. The victims described how this practice erodes trust between police and the minority community.

In testimony submitted at a public hearing yesterday by the RI ACLU and Cooperating Attorney Jennifer Azevedo, the ACLU expressed opposition to proposed Department of Public Safety regulations that would significantly restrict information the Rhode Island State Police (RISP) would release about criminal investigations and subjects.  Under the Department’s proposal, only five specific pieces of information would be guaranteed to be open to the public: the arrestee’s name, address, age, location of arrest, and name of arresting officer. 

The Rhode Island ACLU today filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting the appeal by a group of Central Falls High School students who were subject to a controversial search by Coventry Police after a school soccer game in 2006. Last year, a federal judge dismissed the students’ lawsuit, ruling that the police could have reasonably believed that the search did not violate the students’ constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Having received dozens of pages of documents as the result of an open records lawsuit filed in February, the Rhode Island ACLU and the R.I. Chapter of the National Organization for Women said today that Rhode Island needs to join eight other states by passing legislation next year to restrict the Department of Correction’s ability to shackle pregnant inmates in its custody.