ABSTRACT
Among the many recommendations made by the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice had been the development of strong, centralized administration in corrections.1 Although the idea for a separate department had periodically surfaced in Rhode Island, it had received no political support, and corrections had remained a small division within the state’s Department of Social Welfare. However, in the aftermath of Attica and the belief that an Attica-like tragedy had been narrowly averted at the ACI, the state’s political leaders decided that corrections should be accorded a higher priority. Early in 1972, Governor Licht summoned Anthony Travisono, the director of social welfare, to his office and charged him with drafting legislation to create a new department which he would head. Working with the governor’s legal counsel, Travisono developed the bill which, in an effort to remove political considerations from the department, gave the director a fiveyear term. Despite this unprecedented provision, the bill was approved, almost without debate, on the last day of the 1972 legislative session.2
