Ending Debtor’s Prison in Rhode Island

From 2004 to 2022, OpenDoors helped lead a campaign to reduce incarceration for unpaid court fines and fees in Rhode Island. Currently, the frequency of these incarcerations is vastly reduced as a result of these efforts.

Every year, thousands of individuals sat in the Rhode Island jail not for crimes, but because they owe money to the state. Court debt is the most common reason that people are put in jail in Rhode Island--previously as many as 2,500 times a year.

This incarceration is unnecessary, is an inefficient use of state finances, and disrupts peoples' lives. Rhode Island's system of court debt was considerably more punitive, more costly to defendants, and less accommodating to indigent individuals than other New England states. OpenDoors continues to encourage policymakers to eliminate the incarceration of the poor for inability to pay court fines.