R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-56-17: Identification and description of inmates.

(a) The director of corrections, or the director’s designee, shall cause prisoners confined under sentence in the adult correctional institutions to be physically and factually described in accordance with accepted criminal identification standards for the identification of criminals. The director of corrections, or the director’s designee, shall cause identification to be made by a person or persons in the official service of the state, and shall prescribe rules and regulations for keeping accurate records at those institutions, and for classifying and indexing the records.

(b) The department of corrections shall collect the following information from individuals entering its custody: sex, race, nativity (country of origin), ethnicity, and level of education, and publish a summary of such information on an annual basis.