Rhode Island State Crisis Intervention Program

On June 1, 2018, then Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo signed the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (R.I. Gen. Laws § 8-8.3-1) which temporarily prohibits a person from having possession, custody, or control of firearms or from purchasing or receiving firearms. These petitions are heard by the Superior Court which processed thirty-one in 2019, thirty-five in 2020, and thirty-three in 2021. Many of the petitions come from only a few jurisdictions in the state. According to the Providence Journal, only eight communities have had more than two ERPO’s filed for residents out of thirty-nine cities and towns.

Rhode Island will form a Crisis Intervention Policy Board as part of the already existing Criminal Justice Policy Board, which consists over approximately twenty-five people including various judges, the Attorney General, law enforcement, and the director of the State’s mental health agency. The board will seek to increase awareness of extreme risk protection orders and increase training of various members of the criminal justice community to increase access to these orders for those in need.

The Crisis Intervention Advisory Board will focus its early work on efforts to increase communication, education, and public awareness around extreme risk protective orders. This outreach will include training for judiciary and court staff, family members, and first responders on program implementation.