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Rhode Island DUI penalties breakdown: every component, line by line
Our Rhode Island DUI costs page gives the state overview. This page does the narrower job: it prices each component of R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-27-2 by BAC tier, the $500 highway assessment and $86 fee that attach to every conviction, and the separate refusal case under § 31-27-2.1 — with no added-up total.
The first offence, component by component
Rhode Island tiers a first DUI by the test result. In the published summaries of § 31-27-2, a first offence at 0.08 to under 0.10 carries a fine of $100 to $300, a licence suspension of thirty to one hundred eighty days and ten to sixty hours of public community restitution, plus attendance at a special course on driving while intoxicated and alcohol or drug education or treatment. Higher first-offence tiers raise both the fine band and the suspension band, and the 0.15-and-above tier brings the longest first-offence suspension — up to eighteen months in those summaries — with an ignition interlock condition on any restricted driving. The outer criminal frame in the statute text is a misdemeanour for a first offence with imprisonment of not more than one year and a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), inside which the BAC tiers set the working ranges a court actually applies.
Two assessment components attach to every Rhode Island conviction regardless of tier, and they are the most reliably priced lines on this page. Under § 31-27-2(6)(i), every person convicted shall pay a highway assessment fine of five hundred dollars ($500), deposited into the general fund and collected before any other fines authorised by the section. Under subsection (6)(ii), the convicted person shall also be assessed a fee of eighty-six dollars ($86). A further health-department assessment of two hundred dollars appears in published Rhode Island DUI references — it is noted here as a published-reference component, kept separate from the two amounts quoted directly from subsection (6), rather than merged into a single assessments figure. The special course and any education or treatment ordered are completion components billed by the provider, not priced in the statute.
Second and later offences, and what escalates
Rhode Island's lookback was lengthened in recent amendments — published current references describe a ten-year lookback, doubled from five years effective July 1, 2025 — so priors that once aged out now price a new case into the repeat tiers; confirm the lookback that applies to a specific prior date with the court, because the amendment date matters. Within that window, a second offence carries a mandatory minimum jail component in the published summaries, a licence suspension measured in years rather than months — one to two years in those summaries — and a mandatory interlock prohibition on driving any vehicle not equipped with an ignition interlock system. A third offence within the window is treated as a felony in the current published references, with imprisonment measured in years, a fine band well above the first-offence tiers, and a multi-year suspension followed by an interlock period. Because secondary summaries differ on the exact repeat-tier fine bands after the recent amendments, this page tables the repeat tiers by their classification, suspension and interlock components and by the statute's outer frame — imprisonment of not more than five years and a fine not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) for a second or subsequent offence in the § 31-27-2 text reproduced in code references — rather than inventing a precise band the sources do not agree on.
The under-eighteen components show the same layered drafting: a juvenile first violation requires ten to sixty hours of public community restitution, a licence suspension of six months that may extend to eighteen months, attendance at the special course and education or treatment, and the highway assessment of not more than $500 in the juvenile subsection. Those juvenile figures are tabled in the statute text itself and are included here so a family pricing a young driver's case does not mistake the adult BAC tiers for the whole schedule.
Refusal: a separate civil case with its own price list
Refusal in Rhode Island is not an add-on to the criminal case — it is a separate civil violation heard at the Traffic Tribunal under § 31-27-2.1, with its own components. For a first refusal violation the tribunal shall impose a fine of two hundred dollars ($200) to five hundred dollars ($500), order ten to sixty hours of public community restitution, and suspend the licence for six months to one year, while requiring attendance at the special course and alcohol or drug treatment, and it may prohibit driving any vehicle not equipped with an ignition interlock system. A second refusal violation within ten years is a misdemeanour carrying imprisonment of not more than six months, a fine of six hundred dollars ($600) to one thousand dollars ($1,000), sixty to one hundred hours of restitution and a suspension of one to two years, with treatment and a mandatory interlock prohibition. A driver therefore faces two price lists at once after a refusal arrest — the criminal tiers above and the tribunal tiers here — and each must be budgeted separately.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| First offence, 0.08 to under 0.10 (§ 31-27-2, published summaries) | Fine $100–$300; suspension 30–180 days; 10–60 hours of public community restitution; special course and alcohol/drug education or treatment ordered; outer frame: misdemeanour, not more than 1 year, fine not to exceed $1,000 |
| Highway assessment — every conviction (§ 31-27-2(6)(i)) | $500, deposited in the general fund, collected before any other fines under the section |
| Additional assessment (§ 31-27-2(6)(ii)) | $86 assessed on every person convicted under the section; a further $200 health-department assessment appears in published Rhode Island references, kept separate here |
| Second or subsequent offence (statute outer frame) | Imprisonment of not more than 5 years and a fine not to exceed $5,000 in the § 31-27-2 text; 1–2 year suspension and mandatory interlock in published second-offence summaries; third within the lookback treated as a felony in current references |
| First refusal (§ 31-27-2.1(c)(1)) | Civil violation: fine $200–$500; 10–60 hours of public community restitution; suspension 6 months to 1 year; special course and/or treatment; interlock prohibition may be imposed |
| Second refusal within 10 years (§ 31-27-2.1(c)(2)) | Misdemeanour: imprisonment not more than 6 months; fine $600–$1,000; 60–100 hours of restitution; suspension 1–2 years; treatment and mandatory interlock prohibition |
Sources: R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-27-2 (conviction tiers, $500 highway assessment and $86 fee in subsection (6), juvenile components) and § 31-27-2.1(c) (refusal tiers), as reproduced in Rhode Island code references; current published Rhode Island BAC-tier and lookback summaries, attributed as such where used. Last verified: October 2026.
The fine is one line in a longer stack — court costs, program fees, interlock, supervision and reinstatement all bill separately. Price the layers that apply to your case in the calculator.
Open the DUI cost calculatorWhat this state does not publish as a single figure
Rhode Island court costs are set by the court where the case is heard, not by § 31-27-2, and no single published DUI amount covers them. The special course, education and treatment components, any probation supervision, and an interlock provider's installation, monthly lease and calibration charges are billed outside the statute's fine and assessment figures. Those components are described as requirements on this page rather than priced as state charges. There is no published Rhode Island figure for the effect of a DUI on car insurance prices, and none is estimated here.
Read the two cases together before budgeting: a refusal arrest produces a Traffic Tribunal case and a criminal case on separate schedules, and satisfying one does not satisfy the other — the suspension, restitution and course components can run in both.
There is no added-up statewide total on this page for the same reason: the published components above are the figures the statute, the licensing agency or the court schedule actually sets, and the remaining components are billed case by case. Adding them together would produce a number no authority in this state has published. Use the table to price the components that apply to a specific case, and compare the national pattern in our first-offense cost guide, second-offense guide and third-offense guide.
Common questions
- What assessments does every Rhode Island DUI conviction carry?
- A $500 highway assessment under § 31-27-2(6)(i), collected before any other fines, plus an $86 fee under subsection (6)(ii) — on top of the tier fine itself.
- Is refusal a criminal charge in Rhode Island?
- A first refusal is a separate civil violation at the Traffic Tribunal under § 31-27-2.1: $200–$500, 10–60 hours of restitution and a 6-month to 1-year suspension. A second refusal within ten years is a misdemeanour.
- Why are repeat fine bands described rather than tabled precisely?
- Published summaries differ on the exact repeat bands after the recent lookback amendments, so this page tables the statute's outer frame and the suspension and interlock components the summaries agree on, rather than inventing a band.
Related cost guides: Rhode Island DUI costs overview, DUI refusal costs, high-BAC DUI costs, ignition interlock costs, license reinstatement fees.
Sources: R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-27-2 (conviction tiers, $500 highway assessment and $86 fee in subsection (6), juvenile components) and § 31-27-2.1(c) (refusal tiers), as reproduced in Rhode Island code references; current published Rhode Island BAC-tier and lookback summaries, attributed as such where used. Last verified: October 2026. This page is educational information about costs only — not legal advice. Laws and fees change; confirm current figures with your court and your state's driver-licensing agency.