RIBridges Alert If you may be impacted by the RIBridges data breach, take 5 important steps to protect your personal information today. Please follow this link to find out how to protect your personal information.UPDATED CALL CENTER HOURS AND INFORMATIONPlease call 833-918-6603 Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday – Sunday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.Call center staff will be able to provide general information about the breach as well as steps customers can take now to protect their data. Unfortunately, as the analysis of the data involved is still happening, call center staff will not be able to confirm whether a particular individual’s data is or is not included in the breach at this time. NOTE: The Call Center will not be open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, December 24 and 25, or New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, December 31 and January 1.
Governor McKee Signs Legislation to Compensate the Wrongfully Imprisoned Published on Friday, September 17, 2021 PROVIDENCE, RI – Governor Dan McKee, joined by Representative Patricia A. Serpa and Senator Cynthia A. Coyne, ceremonially signed legislation Thursday that compensates innocent people who spent time behind bars but were then released after new evidence proves they were not guilty. “It is hard to imagine the anger and suffering that one must face when wrongfully imprisoned,” said Governor McKee. “Wrongful imprisonment is an injustice, and as a state, we owe these individuals the compensation that they deserve. Although it can never give them back the time that they lost, we hope that it can help them to get back on the track to a successful life. I thank Representative Serpa and Senator Coyne for seeking justice for these individuals.” The legislation (2021-H 5470B, 2021-S 0672aa) allows anyone who was wrongfully sentenced to prison for more than one year to petition the presiding justice of Rhode Island Superior Court for compensation and damages. If the court finds that the claimant was wrongfully imprisoned, it will grant an award of $50,000 for each year served in a correctional facility. If imprisoned for less than one year, the claimant will receive 1/365 of $50,000 for each day served. The award can include damages such as attorney’s fees no greater than $15,000, plus compensation for reasonable costs including housing, transportation, subsistence, re-integrative services, and mental and physical health care costs. “When an innocent person is put in prison, they not only lose their freedom but their future, their plans, everything they might have been,” said Representative Serpa (D-Dist. 27, West Warwick, Coventry, Warwick). “Once they are proven innocent, the task of re-entering society can be even more difficult than it is for those who rightfully paid for their crimes. Unlike those who are paroled, who have many services at their disposal, the innocent have nothing. They are left with no housing, no income, and no health care.” “Individuals who have been wrongfully convicted have suffered a unique kind of injustice,” said Senator Coyne (D-Dist. 32, Barrington, Bristol, East Providence). “The state has taken from them years of freedom, which they can never get back. The personal loss is impossible to quantify, but the state has an obligation to provide some remedy to people who were wrongfully convicted.”