DARE challenges Correctional Officer Celebrations urging accountability over applause
“These celebrations ignore the reality of what’s happening inside our prisons. Until there is transparency, accountability, and a commitment to human dignity, there is nothing to celebrate.”
Community members, advocates, and allies of Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) gathered at the entrance to Mulligan’s Island in Cranston to protest a Correctional Officer Cookout being held as part of National Correctional Officers Week. A second protest is planned for Thursday evening outside the Rhode Island Maximum Security Prison (see below). The protests challenge public celebrations of correctional staff amid a backdrop of documented abuse, neglect, and systemic failures within the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC).
Initially established by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, National Correctional Officers Week is intended to recognize those who work in corrections. Organizers of the protest argue that these celebrations ignore the serious harm inflicted by a carceral system that routinely fails to protect the lives and dignity of incarcerated people.
DARE noted recent legal actions and news in Rhode Island, highlighting the urgency of reform:
In March 2025, U.S. District Court Chief Judge John McConnell, Jr. rejected the State of Rhode Island’s attempt to dismiss lawsuits related to the deaths of Dana Leyland and Peter De Los Santos, two individuals who died by suicide while in custody at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI). The ACLU of Rhode Island alleges that RIDOC staff showed “deliberate indifference” to the men’s mental health needs, contributing directly to their deaths.
In January 2025, RIDOC changed its mail policy following an ACLU lawsuit claiming the department had been violating attorney-client privilege by copying and reviewing legal mail. This raised serious concerns about privacy, due process, and retaliation against incarcerated individuals.
Families and incarcerated people have long raised alarms about untimely medical attention, the withholding of critical medications, and gross neglect inside RIDOC facilities, often resulting in preventable harm or death. These practices disproportionately affect individuals with mental illness, chronic conditions, and people of color.
When correctional officers have celebrations that necessitate the prison being minimally staffed, “modified rec” is initiated. Fewer correctional officers on duty means that incarcerated people spend more time locked in their cells and are given less recreational time. Rec is a vital part of an incarcerated person’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
“These celebrations ignore the reality of what’s happening inside our prisons,” said Ron Doyle, an Organizer for DARE. “Until there is transparency, accountability, and a commitment to human dignity, there is nothing to celebrate.”
DARE’s protest continues on Thursday, as advocates and concerned community members gather at 6:30 pm outside the Rhode Island Maximum Security Prison to protest RIDOC’s “Family Night.” This event allows correctional officers to bring their families, often including children, into the prison for tours that include viewing incarcerated people inside the facility.
Organizers condemn the event as deeply dehumanizing and compare it to a spectacle reminiscent of a zoo, where human beings are put on display for others to gawk at.
An incarcerated person at the Medium Security facility explained that, “when inmates are locked down, COs bring their families into the prison to look around and view the inmates and prison as if they’re at Roger Williams Zoo. We are pointed at and hear the COs—aka role models—telling their family, ‘This is where the bad people are at. You don’t wanna be here or be like them. Don’t make eye contact with them. Don’t talk to them.’ What’s being said is: ‘We are not humans, nor are we worthy of decency and respect.’”
DARE argues that this practice sends a harmful and dangerous message to both incarcerated individuals and the COs’ families, especially children, by reinforcing shame, fear, and a false moral hierarchy.
“RIDOC’s Family Night treats human beings like exhibits,” said DARE’s Melonie Perez, a spokesperson for the protest. “This is not education—it’s humiliation. It retraumatizes the incarcerated and models cruelty to children.”
“This practice is a disgrace,” said Ron Doyle, an organizer with DARE. “We are here to stand with those on the inside and demand respect, accountability, and change.”
