A new report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island says the state has a history of overzealous lawmaking that creates unfair sentencing and has tripled the state’s incarceration rate since 1980.
The report, titled “Rhode Island’s Statehouse-to-Prison Pipeline,” says a years-long ”tough-on-crime” approach to lawmaking has left Rhode Island with laws that punish people too harshly and make felony crimes out of misdemeanors.
The report says between 2000 and 2017 the Rhode Island General Assembly created 170 new crimes and raised the sentencing guidelines for many other existing offenses.
In a press release, ACLU of RI director Steve Brown said the report shows the “fiscal, social and pragmatic reasons that the ‘tough-on-crime’ approach makes no sense.”
The report recommends a commission to reduce penalties and decriminalize some offenses.
The report also advocates for prison impact statements with any new sentencing bill to examine the financial impacts of new sentencing requirements.
