News & Commentary

The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that a landmark Rhode Island civil rights case over the rights of incarcerated youth has come to a close. At the behest of the ACLU and the state of Rhode Island, U.S. District Court Chief Judge William Smith dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit against the Rhode Island Training School for Youth in Cranston. The ACLU’s National Prison Project joined the suit in 2001, thirty years after it had been filed to challenge conditions at the facility. At the time the case was filed, teen prisoners did not receive adequate food, schooling, or medical care; the institution provided no mental health care or treatment. “I’m proud to say ‘Case closed,’” said Amy Fettig, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project and lead attorney in the case. “Instead of unconstitutional neglect and mistreatment, the Rhode Island Training School for Youth now follows the best practices for working with teens in detention.” In 1973, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit entered into a consent decree that addressed such critical problems as overcrowding; insufficient staffing; meager medical care; a deteriorated physical plant; inadequate meals; scant academic, vocational, and physical education programs; and a lack of mental health care and treatment. A special master was appointed to oversee compliance with the consent decree, and the decree has been amended several times over the years as the institution met some of the terms, most recently in 2014. In his order closing the case, Judge Smith found that the state has substantially complied with the only key elements of the decree that still remained: 1)   Construction of new facilities to meet national standards; 2)   Implementation of a revised policy and procedures manual; 3)   Implementation of a detailed and effective administrative grievance procedure to handle residents’ complaints; and 4)   Establishment of an independent audit and review process by a team of outside experts to ensure substantial compliance with the national best practice standards for juvenile justice created by the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. When the lawsuit was filed in 1971, the Rhode Island Training School for Youth was called the Boys’ Training School. Today it holds approximately 80 boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 18. ACLU of Rhode Island volunteer attorney John W. Dineen served as local counsel in the lawsuit, Inmates of the Rhode Island Training School for Youth v. Piccola. More information on the case is available here.

ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement in response to Governor Raimondo's signing of a bill yesterday giving law enforcement access to the Department of Health's prescription database without a warrant:

The ACLU of Rhode Island today sued the City of Cranston over its latest anti-panhandling ordinance.  The suit, filed in federal court by ACLU of RI volunteer attorney Lynette Labinger, argues that the ordinance, enacted earlier this year by a 5-4 vote of the City Council, violates the First Amendment right of individuals to solicit donations and distribute literature on Cranston roadways.

UPDATE: Despite the strong opposition to the legislation, the Governor signed it into law.  Read our statement here.

ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement in response to the request from the “President’s Commission on Election Integrity” for detailed information from the Secretary of State about every voter: "The ACLU of Rhode Island is deeply concerned about the Presidential Commission’s request for detailed information on every registered voter in the country. There can be little question that this Commission has a preordained agenda aimed at promoting voter suppression. "Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea has pledged that she will not release to the Commission any information beyond what is already available to the public under Rhode Island law. We are confident that she will safeguard from disclosure any other personal information of the state’s voters that the Commission has requested. We will be prepared to assist in challenging any Commission efforts to obtain that additional information."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and R.I. Legal Services (RILS) have filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) against the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (RIDLT) for failing to provide non-English speaking residents with meaningful access to the agency’s critical unemployment insurance (UI) services.

In its first legal effort to counter efforts across the state to undermine the state’s medical marijuana law, the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a lawsuit against the Town of Smithfield over a recently enacted ordinance that imposes significant burdens on medical marijuana patients’ access to treatment.  The lawsuit, filed in R.I. Superior Court, is on behalf of two licensed medical marijuana patients – listed as Jane Does to protect their confidentiality – and the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition (RIPAC), a medical marijuana public education organization. The suit was filed as other municipalities consider adopting similar troubling restrictions on the rights of medical marijuana patients, although Smithfield’s appears to be the most egregious.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today announced the settlement of a federal lawsuit against Tiverton police and school officials over a 2014 incident in which an 8-year-old girl was removed by police from a school bus, taken alone to the police station without her parents’ knowledge, and then held and questioned at the station for several hours before being released. The seizure, detention and interrogation of the young child were based solely on unsubstantiated claims from another child that the girl was carrying “chemicals” in her backpack, and occurred even after the police found nothing in the backpack.

In response to the reported arrest by ICE agents of an undocumented immigrant outside a Providence courthouse, ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown today issued the following statement: