The ProJo reports that Deputy Majority Leader Raymond J. Sullivan, Jr., best known for heading up Barack Obama's Rhode Island general election campaign, was arrested on drunk driving charges early this morning.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- State police said Wednesday that they have charged Rep. Raymond J. Sullivan Jr., D-Coventry, with driving while under the influence of alcohol.

As the RI ACLU prepares to hold a news conference today regarding the Wyatt Detention Center and the death of Jason Ng, the Boston Globe reports on how some other prisons, including the nearby Bristol County Jail, have enhanced their revenue by jailing immigrant detainees:

Bristol and other cash-strapped county jails are increasingly embracing the immigration business, capitalizing on the soaring number of foreign-born detainees and the millions of federal dollars a year paid to incarcerate them.

There's not uncommonly a link between a down economy and a rise in violent crime, so the streetworkers based at the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence in Providence have their work cut out for them -- more so than usual.

Appropriately, Ed Fitzpatrick took up the streetworkers and their efforts in a column on Christmas:

The New York Times continues its strong Rhode Island-based reporting on immigration, using a lengthy front-pager today to highlight the meager returns generated by the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility for its host community of Central Falls, and how the privately managed prison functions as a cog in incarceration's answer to the war on drugs

The Rhode Island Family Life Center is an important voice in the local cause of criminal-justice reform, so this is troubling news:

Providence, RI, December 15, 2008-- As the growing impact of Bernie Madoff's outrageous scheme unfolds nationwide, Rhode Islanders might be surprised to hear that a local non-profit has been affected by Madoff's massive fraud.

Ariel returns to the pages of the Phoenix with a look at Stronger than Their Walls, the Family Life Center's new documentary about the need for probation reform and the word on some upcoming screenings.

A precondition for state inmates' release to probation is their promise to "preserve the peace and be of good behavior."

[image from thebrothersbulger.com]

During Colonel Brendan Doherty's appearance this morning on Newsmakers, I was surprised when he responded to a question about Louis "Baby Shacks" Manocchio, the reputed head of organized crime in Rhode Island, by referring to him as "Baby Shanks."

It had been my impression that "Baby Shanks" was a mistaken derivation of the actual nickname.

During the bygone heyday of Raymond L.S. Patriarca, some inferiority complex-plagued Rhode Islanders took solace in how the New England Mob was headquartered out of a storefront on Atwells Avenue.

Now, although LCN has continued its longstanding fade across the country, public fascination (as well as that of the press) continues when Mob-related stories burst into the spotlight

An economically telling detail in the ProJo's coverage of the big OC bust earlier this week:

In addition, longtime mob enforcer Gerald M. “Gerry” Tillinghast, 62, was accused of resuming his storied criminal career upon his release from prison last year, after serving 30 years for the 1977 murder of loan shark George Basmajian.

Beth made a post at the Dose yesterday about an anti-drug war event at Brown:

The Brown University chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy ( SSDP) sponsored a lecture last night featuring Jeffrey A. Miron, libertarian economist and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University. Mr. Miron is the author of Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition; his particular focus last night was contrasting the libertarian approach (complete legalization of all drugs) with that of liberals (some marijuana is okay sometimes, but the other stuff should be controlled).

Secretary of State Ralph Mollis says he supports Clean Elections' legislation as a way of making elections in Rhode Island more competititve, and he thinks campaign-finance reform could become law once the state moves past its ongoing budget woes. Mollis make the remarks this morning during a taping of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers

In separate segments, Colonel Brendan Doherty of the Rhode Island State Police and Dennis Grilli, executive director of AFSCME's Council 94, are the guests this week on WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers. Tim White fills in as host for the vacationing Steve Aveson, joined by Arlene Violet and myself.

Doherty told me that the different stances between himself and Dean Esserman regarding Governor Carcieri's executive order on immigration have not had an adverse effect on relations between the state police and their counterparts in Providence.

B.J. Finnell, news director at WLNE-TV, got back to me a short time ago, and he offered this statement about the station's mistaken report yesterday by reporter Malini Basu:

As a postscript to the story, ABC 6 has this correction, and apology.

Earlier [yesterday], during our noon newscast, we reported that two police officers had been shot during today’s robbery and chase.

Yesterday, as the story was breaking after an attempted bank robbery on Broad Street in South Providence, WLNE-TV (Channel 6) mistakenly reported on its mid-day newscast that a Providence police officer had been shot. The station then mistakenly reported that two officers had been shot. (No officers were shot during the episode, which, police say, resulted in the suicide of one suspect and the arrest of two others.