News & Commentary

by Steven Brown, Executive Director

Concluding that a 42-year old U.S. Supreme Court decision gave her “no authority to invalidate the Statute as unconstitutional,” U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi today upheld a 107-year-old Rhode Island law that declares inmates serving life sentences at the ACI to be “civilly dead.” The lawsuit, filed last year in U.S. District Court by ACLU volunteer attorney Sonja Deyoe, was on behalf of Woonsocket resident Shelby Ferreira and inmate Cody-Allen Zab, who had been barred from marrying because of the “civil death” law.

“Like the weather, it appears that everybody in Rhode Island loves to talk about the state’s car tax but nobody ends up actually doing anything about it. The Vehicle Value Commission has the power to do something about it, and bears responsibility for the frustration and, sometimes, anger that taxpayers in the state have about it. For years, the ACLU of Rhode Island has submitted testimony to the Commission to encourage revisions to these regulations in order to address that frustration and bring some semblance of fairness to the valuation process. No revisions have ensued, unfortunately. Despite our lack of optimism that this year will be any different, we offer our views once again.”

The electoral race between Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello and his Republican challenger Steven Frias has, for obvious reasons, drawn an incredible amount of attention.  Both candidates are working very hard to capture every vote they can in their district. But one exceptional aspect of their race has gone unmentioned: they have fewer people to convince to vote for them than in all but one other House district.

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement today in response to the lawsuit filed yesterday by Providence City Councilor Kevin Jackson, challenging the recall petition process that has been initiated against him by some constituents in his district:

According to a national report released by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, blacks in Rhode Island were arrested for drug possession at almost three times the rate of whites in 2014. That rate was higher than the national average, which shows blacks being arrested at about two-and-a-half times the rates of whites. This major disparity at both the state and national level exists even though national studies repeatedly show that blacks and whites generally use drugs at roughly similar rates.

UPDATE 1/12/2017. The Cranston City Council Ordinance committee has approved passage of the ordinance, and it could go before the full City Council for approval as early as January 23, 2017. You can read the updated testimony we submitted to the committee here.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today issued the following statement in response to the Providence Police Department’s plans to acquire force-wide body cameras: “While body cameras can benefit the public and law enforcement by bringing much-needed transparency to policing, the policy we understand is currently in use by the Providence Police Department will serve only to shroud body camera footage in secrecy and raise serious questions as to the discretion used by law enforcement in activating the cameras. These questions must be resolved before the start of any widespread body camera program. “Under this policy, police have broad discretion in when to turn the cameras on and off, allowing for law enforcement to choose to turn body cameras on after an incident has commenced and the body cameras can no longer shed much-needed light on a situation. Beyond immediate officer safety concerns, any subjectivity in decisions to turn body cameras on or off raises concerns about what is not being captured by cameras, and why. While the policy encompasses many of the instances in which a body camera should be activated, unintentional gaps in the ‘Body Worn Camera Activation Parameters’ leave law enforcement open to allegations of subjective body camera use and may fail to capture many of the instances in which body cameras may be most helpful. “Further, the policy lacks clear guidance as to the release of body camera footage. Particularly in light of recent events in Charlotte, North Carolina and the controversy surrounding release of footage in other municipalities using body cameras, it is imperative that any body camera policy clearly allow for the release of footage to the public, without delay. The greatest benefit of body cameras to the public is that of transparency in policing – a benefit that is denied to the public if the Providence Police Department can choose to deny access to these videos. “The ACLU of Rhode Island calls on the Providence Police Department to publicly promulgate a new policy for the use of body cameras, with these concerns taken into account.”

The ACLU of RI today announced the favorable settlement of a federal civil rights complaint it filed last year against the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for refusing to provide language interpreter services to clients who spoke any language other than English, Spanish or Portuguese.