President and General Counsel
Grades |
State Law Evasion Grade | Final Grade |
|
Rhode Island
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Forfeiture Law![]() |
Rhode Island civil forfeiture laws fail to protect property owners. The government only needs to show probable cause to believe a property is related to a crime to forfeit it. And property owners are effectively guilty until proven innocent, as the burden is on the property owner to prove he was not aware of or did not participate in the underlying crime. Ninety percent of forfeited property makes its way to law enforcement, while only 10 percent is allocated to the Department of Health for drug abuse treatment programs. The state is supposed to collect information on forfeiture but failed to respond to requests for information. |
Forfeitures as Reported to LEMAS (Drug-related only)![]() |
|||||||||||||||
|
Equitable Sharing Proceeds from the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF) ![]() |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Freedom of Information Data![]() |
No Data Available; Required to Collect, But Did Not Respond to Request
|
Arlington, Va.—It’s called policing for profit and it’s happening all across America. And Rhode Island’s laws fail to protect property owners from this abuse. Under a practice called “civil forfeiture,” police and prosecutors’ offices seize private property—often without ever charging the owners with a crime, much less convicting them of one—then keep or sell what…
Institute for Justice
901 N. Glebe Road, Suite 900
Arlington, VA 22203
© Institute for Justice 2021
IJ® is a registered trademark of the Institute for Justice.
Privacy Policy
Last modified: January 1, 2020