ACLU’s Plan to End Mass Incarceration in Rhode Island

Rhode Island has 2,748 people in prison.

We can reduce that number.

If Rhode Island were to follow these and other reforms in this Smart Justice 50-State Blueprint, 1,353 fewer people would be in prison in Rhode Island by 2025, saving over $163 million that could be invested in schools, services, and other resources that would strengthen communities.

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Proposed reforms

Rhode Island

Drug offenses-267 fewer people in prison

Institute alternatives that end all admissions for drug possession
Reduce average time served for drug distribution and other drug offenses by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions for drug distribution and other drug offenses by 50%

Public order offenses-265 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 50%

Assault-240 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 30%

Robbery-144 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 20%

Theft-95 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 40%

Burglary-93 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 30%

Other property offenses-68 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 40%

Weapons offenses-62 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%

Other violent offenses-35 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 40%

Fraud-34 fewer people in prison

Reduce average time served by 50%
Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 40%

DWI-34 fewer people in prison

Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 50%
Reduce average time served by 20%

Motor vehicle theft-16 fewer people in prison

Institute alternatives that reduce admissions by 40%
Reduce average time served by 50%

Rhode Island would have 0 fewer people in prison with these reforms.

And save $163,350,979.

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Facts and Policy Reforms for Rhode Island

Like most states, Rhode Island’s prison population has exploded in recent decades.

Between 1980 and 2008, Rhode Island’s incarcerated population rose by a staggering 429 percent. It then declined by 29 percent up to 2018, but still remains nearly four times larger than it was in 1980. As of 2018, there were 2,741 people incarcerated in the state. There are also a significant number of people on probation – in 2016, Rhode Island had the second highest adult probation supervision rate in the nation at 2,680 per 100,000 adults. Since then, the legislature has passed modest reforms intended to reduce that number.

In 2018, 13,271 people were admitted to correctional facilities in the state, including people who’d been sentenced to terms of incarceration as well as those who were awaiting trial. More than half (53 percent of men and 66 percent of women) had either been charged with or convicted of a nonviolent or drug-related offense.

Unsurprisingly, Rhode Island’s mass incarceration crisis has had a particularly severe impact on people of color in the state. Despite only accounting for 6 percent of the state’s adult population, Black Rhode Islanders made up 29 percent of the sentenced population in 2017. That same year, the adult Latino incarceration rate of the sentenced population was more than three times higher than the adult white sentenced incarceration rate.

Mental health and drug treatment needs are also prevalent in Rhode Island correctional facilities. The Rhode Island Department of Corrections reports that 15-20 percent of its incarcerated population is “severe[ly] and persistently mentally ill.”

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Rhode Island can dramatically reduce its incarcerated population by implementing just a few sensible reforms, including:

Eliminating cash bail so that people are not forced to take a plea deal rather than languish behind bars and lose their jobs and income before trial.
Expanding mental health and drug abuse treatment programs so that people who need help aren’t thrown into the criminal legal system rather than receiving it.
Expanding the three-year cap on some probation terms to cover all offenses, increase mechanisms for early termination so fewer people are revoked to prison, and reduce parole and probation revocations for technical or minor violations.
Ending the practice of increasing prison sentences for crimes already on the books or creating new, duplicative criminal offenses with longer prison sentences.
Reducing the barriers state law places on formerly-incarcerated individuals in being able to qualify for state-issued occupational licenses.

Were Rhode Island to follow these and other reforms outlined in the ACLU’s Smart Justice Blueprint, by 2025 it could have 1,353 fewer people in prison, saving over $163 million dollars.

For more information, along with a detailed breakdown of Rhode Island’s prison population and the reforms needed to reduce it, click here.

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