Access Limited: An Audit of Compliance with the Rhode Island Public Records Laws (September 2014)
In 2012 Rhode Island made its first significant amendments to the Access to Public Records Act (APRA) in over a decade. In order to test the effectiveness of those amendments ACCESS/RI joined with MuckRock to conduct a comprehensive audit of compliance. Surveying 39 cities and towns as well as 24 state and quasi-public agencies, the audit tests numerous aspects of the law including the new 'balancing test' modeled after the federal FOIA. The results are disheartening, with widespread problems with compliance at the state and municipal levels.
Download the full report (pdf): Access Limited.
Download the full report (pdf): Access Limited.
- Executive Summary
- Summary Tables
- Appendix A - MuckRock URL index
- Appendix B - AG APRA certification logs
- Appendix C - State agency APRA procedures
- Appendix D - Municipal records APRA procedures
- Appendix E1 - Police APRA procedures
- Appendix E2 - Police APRA procedures
- Appendix F - School district APRA procedures
A Preliminary Study of Compliance in Rhode Island (August 2003)
Quasi-public agencies are important, but little understood, institutions with public goals and public purposes. These agencies are government bodies for the purposes of the Access to Public Records Act and the Open Meetings Act. Both of those laws are important components in the assuring public accountability for the public's business.
This study examined 23 quasi-public agencies for compliance with selected provisions of the Open Meetings Act in 2002. It examined whether (and when) the agency filed minutes with the Secretary of State and how the agency handled several issues in connection with closed meetings, known under the law as "executive sessions." Download pdf here.
This study examined 23 quasi-public agencies for compliance with selected provisions of the Open Meetings Act in 2002. It examined whether (and when) the agency filed minutes with the Secretary of State and how the agency handled several issues in connection with closed meetings, known under the law as "executive sessions." Download pdf here.
Accessibility and Confidentiality in the Rhode Island Court System (2000)
How open are the courts as an institution? In many respects, the answer is that they are extraordinarily open. The public is almost always welcome to observe court proceedings. There have been a few exceptions in Rhode Island -- as when a judge refused to allow public access to jury selection (and was later overruled by the State Supreme Court) -- but generally, there is no question that court proceedings are subject to public scrutiny. The public can even observe trials in child molestation cases, where the full record is not available for public inspection.
Certain electronic data about court proceedings are also available to the public, making the courts far more accessible in this regard than most other parts of government. There are public terminals in the court clerks' office that allow members of the public to examine the status and outcome of civil and criminal cases going back more than a decade. Moreover, the court clerks are generally very helpful in providing access to the actual court files.
Against this general background of openness, we sought to examine three specific areas where the norms of accessibility might be at issue. The first area involves the expungement of criminal cases. Expungement is a method of sealing otherwise public documents in criminal courts. The expungement of criminal court records is relatively uncontroversial when applied to cases where criminal charges were dropped or where the defendant was not convicted at trial. It is more controversial, however, when records of conviction are removed from the public record. The question posed in this study is whether felony convictions are being expunged in contradiction to the terms of the statute. In other words, are cases being expunged which are not eligible under the law?
The two remaining areas of study involve civil cases. One component of this study concerns the sealing of civil records. We sought to determine how often records are sealed and how often it is possible to ascertain the basis for sealing. The final component concerns the settlement of claims against municipalities. The question we asked is whether the settlements of civil suits are generally available to the public as mandated by statute. Settlement information is not generally filed with the court, so this aspect of the study involved surveying city and town solicitors.
Download pdf here.
Certain electronic data about court proceedings are also available to the public, making the courts far more accessible in this regard than most other parts of government. There are public terminals in the court clerks' office that allow members of the public to examine the status and outcome of civil and criminal cases going back more than a decade. Moreover, the court clerks are generally very helpful in providing access to the actual court files.
Against this general background of openness, we sought to examine three specific areas where the norms of accessibility might be at issue. The first area involves the expungement of criminal cases. Expungement is a method of sealing otherwise public documents in criminal courts. The expungement of criminal court records is relatively uncontroversial when applied to cases where criminal charges were dropped or where the defendant was not convicted at trial. It is more controversial, however, when records of conviction are removed from the public record. The question posed in this study is whether felony convictions are being expunged in contradiction to the terms of the statute. In other words, are cases being expunged which are not eligible under the law?
The two remaining areas of study involve civil cases. One component of this study concerns the sealing of civil records. We sought to determine how often records are sealed and how often it is possible to ascertain the basis for sealing. The final component concerns the settlement of claims against municipalities. The question we asked is whether the settlements of civil suits are generally available to the public as mandated by statute. Settlement information is not generally filed with the court, so this aspect of the study involved surveying city and town solicitors.
Download pdf here.
Access to Public Information in Rhode Island's Cities and Towns (1999)
This study was designed and written by fifteen students from Brown University, working under the supervision of Professor Ross Cheit. The fieldwork was conducted by the Brown students and by volunteers who were recruited from almost every city and town in Rhode Island. Most of the volunteers are members of Common Cause/Rhode Island. Download the pdf here.
An Audit of Rhode Island Cities and Towns (1998)
The purpose of this study is to answer the question "How well does the Open Records Law work in the cities and towns of Rhode Island?" by providing the first systematic data on the implementation of it. The authors visited all 39 cities and towns in the state and requested a variety of documents, all covered by the state's Open Records Act, from the city/town clerk, the school department, and the police department. In addition to measuring compliance in terms of receiving the documents, the ease of obtaining the records was examined, and in the case of the minutes from meetings, the quality of records was also examined. Download the pdf here.
