News & Commentary

Following years of glaring failures in Rhode Island’s behavioral health system for children and youth, Disability Rights Rhode Island, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, and Children’s Rights today filed a class action lawsuit against the State for denying Medicaid-eligible children and youth their right to appropriate mental health care.

Since the last time a Rhode Island Constitutional Convention was held in 1986, Rhode Island voters have rejected this measure four times in a row – in 1994, 2004, 2014, and now 2024. The last two times it has been rejected by double digit margins. The people of Rhode Island, time and time again...

We Know What a Constitutional Convention Is Like – It’s Why We Oppose Question 1

A lawsuit filed today by ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys alleges that the R.I. Department of Corrections (RIDOC) is interfering with the rights of ACI prisoners and their attorneys to share information confidentially and, in the process, violating their constitutional rights

In a disturbing case of serious police misconduct, ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys have filed a lawsuit today on behalf of a Woonsocket resident, Mack Blackie, who was twice unlawfully and falsely arrested and detained by Woonsocket police

On November 5, Question 1 on the ballot will ask voters if they wish to approve the calling of a state constitutional convention. The ACLU of Rhode Island strongly opposes this ballot question.

Responding to a “catastrophic” failure of school transportation services in Providence that left many students with disabilities stranded in getting to or from school last week, the ACLU of Rhode Island, joined by the R.I. Center for Justice, today sent a letter to state Dept. of Education.

ACLU of RI's statement on an executive order just issued by the Cranston’s Mayor that unilaterally giving the police department broad power to remove encampments.

Mario Monteiro, the namesake of “Mario’s Law,” the state law designed to give youthful offenders with long prison sentences the opportunity to apply for parole after 20 years, was released from the ACI today after serving more than 22 years in prison for a crime he committed at the age of 17.