Issues

From policing and sentencing, to the treatment of incarcerated people, the ACLU of RI seeks to reform the excessively harsh, unnecessary criminal justice policies and practices that result in mass incarceration, over-criminalization and ongoing inequality.

We actively work for a Rhode Island where people with disabilities have full and equitable access to education, health care, employment, voting access, and other types of civic engagement. We are also committed to ensuring that people with disabilities are treated fairly in regards to the criminal legal system.

The right to due process means that the government must respect the legal rights of all and proceed fairly with people in their day-to-day dealings with government bureaucracy and the court system. When the government denies or limits someone's right to seek relief in the court or denies them an opportunity to be heard, that is a violation of their right to due process.

We fight to protect the Ocean State's most economically vulnerable residents, including low-wage workers, people experiencing homelessness, and low-income students.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlines five fundamental rights that individuals have with regard to the government: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition the government, and freedom of religion.

Despite strides made in recent decades, gender inequality and discrimination persists.

We work daily to improve citizens' access to public records and meetings through litigation, public education and advocacy.

The fundamental constitutional protections of due process and equal protection embodied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to every person, regardless of immigration status. When the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to immigrants, all of our rights are at risk. The ACLU of RI works actively to expand and enforce the rights of immigrants and to combat discrimination against them.

Through lobbying, litigation and public education, the ACLU of RI works so that LGBTQ+ people can live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association.