News & Commentary

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Corrections (DOC), alleging that correctional officials have engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional harassment against inmate Jason Cook after he publicly criticized Department of Corrections’ mail policies and sought legal assistance from the ACLU. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorneys from the law firm of DeLuca and Weizenbaum, details a series of retaliatory and disciplinary actions against Cook who, until he spoke out, had a relatively clean disciplinary record.

In response to an emergency request filed by the RI ACLU, a judge has halted the deportation of a key witness in the RI ACLU’s lawsuit on behalf of the family of Hiu Lui (“Jason”) Ng.  Ng was a 34-year-old Chinese detainee who died last August while in the custody of immigration officials at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls.  Prison officials denied Ng appropriate medical care despite his complaints of excruciating pain.  He was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and a broken spine less than a week before his death. 

The RI ACLU has sent a letter to Mayor Charles Moreau of Central Falls, expressing concern about the City’s response to the death of Hiu Lui Ng after mistreatment by prison employees at the Wyatt Detention Facility last August.  The letter contrasts city officials’ general silence surrounding Ng’s death with the City’s outcry at the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) decision to remove immigration detainees from Wyatt, and officials’ recent efforts to solicit a private buyer for the prison.  “The juxtaposition of these responses and the sense of priorities they highlight are extremely disturbing,” states the letter.  Even after Ng’s death, the letter notes, the City entrusted Wyatt to detain teenage curfew violators. 

The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the family of Hiu Lui (“Jason”) Ng, a 34-year-old Chinese detainee who died last August while in the custody of immigration officials at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls.

The Rhode Island ACLU today said it would appeal a ruling issued yesterday in a federal lawsuit filed last year against the R.I. State Police, challenging the legality of the detention and transporting to immigration officials of fourteen people, all Guatemalans, who were stopped in a van on I-95 after the driver changed lanes without using a turn signal. The lawsuit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney V. Edward Formisano on behalf of eleven of the individuals, argued that the actions by the state police violated the state’s Racial Profiling Prevention Act, as well as the driver and passengers’ constitutional rights to be free from discrimination and from unreasonable searches and seizures. However, U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi has ruled that the officers’ conduct was lawful.

In the latest example of a police department choosing to ignore its clear legal responsibilities to release public documents, the Rhode Island ACLU has today filed an open records lawsuit against the North Smithfield Police for refusing to turn over an arrest report to a community activist.

The Rhode Island ACLU today announced that it has agreed to provide legal representation to the family of Hiu Liu (“Jason”) Ng, the Chinese detainee who died last month while in the custody of immigration officials at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. The case will be handled by RI ACLU cooperating attorney John J. McConnell, Jr. of the law firm of Motley Rice, LLC.

Responding to the deaths of two people with mental disabilities last month when confronted by police, eight advocacy organizations today cited a “critical and urgent need for uniform and comprehensive training of all police in Rhode Island to ensure a proper response to persons with mental illness, cognitive impairments or developmental disabilities.” The organizations, many of whom deal with or represent on a daily basis individuals with mental illness, made the comments in a letter sent to all police chiefs in the state.

In an important victory for the public’s right to know, the R.I. Department of Corrections (DOC) has significantly modified regulations governing media access that it had proposed in September.  At the time, the ACLU had argued that the rules would “allow for a regime of censorship over the news media in their efforts to interview inmates and inform the public.” The revised regulations, being filed with the Secretary of State’s office this week, favorably address virtually every concern that the RI ACLU and others had raised in testimony to the DOC.