{{Short description|First elected female state Attorney General}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Arlene Violet |office = [[Attorney General of Rhode Island]] |governor = [[Edward D. DiPrete]] |term_start = January 1, 1985 |term_end = January 1987 |predecessor = [[Dennis J. Roberts II|Dennis Roberts]] |successor = [[James E. O'Neil|James O'Neil]] |birth_date = {{birth year and age|1943}} |birth_place = [[Providence, Rhode Island]], U.S. |death_date = |death_place = |party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (formerly)<br>[[Independent politician|Independent]] |education = [[Providence College]]<br>[[Salve Regina University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Boston College]] ([[Juris Doctor|JD]]) }} '''Arlene Violet''' (born 1943) is an American politician. She was a [[religious sister]] in the [[Sisters of Mercy]]<ref name="Butterfield">{{cite news|last1=Butterfield|first1=Fox|title=Rhode Island Nun Quits Her Order to Run for Attorney General|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/20/us/rhode-island-nun-quits-her-order-to-run-for-attorney-general.html|access-date=28 December 2015|work=The New York Times|date=January 20, 1984|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524154549/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/20/us/rhode-island-nun-quits-her-order-to-run-for-attorney-general.html|archive-date=May 24, 2015|location=New York City, New York}}</ref> and [[Attorney General of Rhode Island]] 1985–1987. She was the first female [[Attorney General]] elected in the United States.<ref name=Weatherford /><ref name="caw">[http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/Facts/firsts.html Rutgers, Center for American Women And Politics (accessed 5/23/2007)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070530043444/http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/Facts/firsts.html |date=May 30, 2007 }}</ref>
==Biography== Arlene Violet was born into a middle class [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican–voting]]<ref name="Butterfield"/> family in [[Providence, Rhode Island]]. After attending [[Providence College]], she entered [[Sisters of Mercy]] convent in 1961, taking her final vows in 1969. Violet said she joined the convent because "I wanted to do something with my life and try to make a difference, and I saw nuns as the people who could make that difference."<ref name="Crimetown" />
Violet later earned a bachelor's degree from [[Salve Regina University]] and was a school teacher in a disadvantaged neighborhood in the early 1970s. Becoming interested in law, she enrolled at [[Boston College Law School]], graduating in 1974. During her schooling, she clerked in the judge's chambers and did an internship in the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office. Due to financial difficulties at the convent, she left her legal work and returned to the convent, serving as an administrative nun through the early 1980s.<ref name=Weatherford />
==Attorney General of Rhode Island== In 1982 she ran unsuccessfully for Attorney General. But when she ran again in 1984, Violet won the election, becoming the first elected female attorney general in the United States.<ref name=Weatherford /> During her time in office she focused on organized crime, environmental issues, and victims’ rights.<ref name=Weatherford /> She also pushed for banking reform.<ref name="ProJo20170320" />
===RISDIC=== Shortly after taking office in 1984 Violet learned that the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation (RISDIC), a government chartered but private (similar to Amtrak) insurance fund meant to protect the state banking system, was "woefully underfunded" with only $25 million in reserves.<ref name="ProJo20170320" /> She found that RISDIC was making loans to politically connected people without any personal guarantees.<ref name="ProJo20170320" /> Violet pushed for legislation to require Rhode Island banks to be federally insured, but this was voted down.<ref name="ProJo20170320" /> Violet warned that the banking system in Rhode Island was "a house of cards."<ref name="ProJo20170320" /> Four years later, Rhode Island faced [[Rhode Island banking crisis|a run on the banks]], and in January 1991, newly elected Governor [[Bruce Sundlun]] declared a bank emergency.<ref name="ProJo20170320" />
===Other achievements=== One of her innovations was to use videotape interviews of child victims rather than direct testimony.<ref name=Weatherford /> She also won recognition for reopening the [[Claus von Bülow|Von Bülow case]].<ref name="von Bulow">{{cite news|title=Lawyers for Von Bulow Challenge Rhode Island on Trial Preparation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/22/us/lawyers-for-von-bulow-challenge-rhode-island-on-trial-preparation.html|access-date=28 December 2015|work=The New York Times|date=May 22, 1985|location=New York City, New York}}</ref>
Violet lost her reelection bid in 1986 and her term ended.<ref name="office terms">{{cite web|title=State Fact Sheet - Rhode Island|url=http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/state_fact_sheets/ri|publisher=Eagleton Institute of Politics|access-date=28 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228003825/http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/state_fact_sheets/ri|archive-date=28 December 2015|location=Rutgers University, New Jersey|date=2015}}</ref><ref name="ProJo20170320" />
==Life after politics== After leaving office, Violet returned to prosecuting, taught environmental law at [[Brown University]], ran a talk show on [[WHJJ]] Radio from 1990 to 2006, and writes a weekly political column. She has written two books ''Convictions: My Journey from the Convent to the Courtroom'' (1988), an autobiography, and ''The Mob and Me'' (2010) a book about the witness protection program. She also drafted a manual on search seizure law.<ref name=Weatherford /> She was inducted into the [[Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame Women Inductees|Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame]] in 1996.<ref name="Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame">{{cite web|title=Arlene Violet|url=http://www.riheritagehalloffame.org/inductees_detail.cfm?crit=det&iid=43|publisher=Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame|access-date=28 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151227191336/http://www.riheritagehalloffame.org/inductees_detail.cfm?crit=det&iid=43|archive-date=27 December 2015|location=Providence, Rhode Island|date=1996}}</ref>
She wrote a musical, ''The Family, A Musical Drama About the Mob'', with composer and lyricist, [[Enrico Garzilli]], which premiered by special arrangement with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI in June 2011.
==See also== *[[List of female state attorneys general in the United States]]
==Notes and references== {{reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="ProJo20170320">{{cite news|last1=Bramson|first1=Kate|title=Crimetown Episode 13 review: Arlene Violet's doomed battle and the R.I. banking crisis|url=http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170319/crimetown-episode-13-review-arlene-violets-doomed-battle-and-ri-banking-crisis|access-date=20 March 2017|publisher=[[The Providence Journal]]|date=19 March 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Crimetown">{{cite web|title=Chapter Thirteen: The Network|url=http://www.crimetownshow.com/transcripts/2017/3/19/chapter-thirteen-the-network|website=[[Crimetown]]|publisher=[[Gimlet Media]]|access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref> <ref name=Weatherford>{{cite book|last=Weatherford|first=Doris|title=Women in American Politics: History and Milestones|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wW5wumFHKSEC&pg=SL11-PA76|year=2012|publisher=CQ Press|location=Los Angeles, California|isbn=978-1-60871-007-2|pages=76–77}}</ref> }}
==External links== * {{cite web|title=Chapter Thirteen: The Network|url=http://www.crimetownshow.com/episodes-1/2017/3/15/chapter-thirteen|website=[[Crimetown]]|publisher=Gimlet Media|access-date=20 March 2017}} Includes photos and interview with Arlene Violet
==Bibliography== *{{cite book|last=Weatherford|first=Doris|title=Women in American Politics: History and Milestones|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wW5wumFHKSEC&pg=SL11-PA76|year=2012|publisher=CQ Press|location=Los Angeles, California|isbn=978-1-60871-007-2}}
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Ronald J. Perillo}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nominee for [[List of attorneys general of Rhode Island|Attorney General of Rhode Island]]|years=1982, 1984, 1986}} {{s-aft|after=Kathleen Voccola}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=[[Dennis J. Roberts II|Dennis Roberts]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Attorney General of Rhode Island]]|years=1985–1987}} {{s-aft|after=[[James E. O'Neil|James O'Neil]]}} {{s-end}}
{{Rhode Island Women's Hall of Fame}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Violet, Arlene}} [[Category:1943 births]] [[Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns]] [[Category:20th-century American women politicians]] [[Category:21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns]] [[Category:Boston College Law School alumni]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Providence College alumni]] [[Category:Rhode Island attorneys general]] [[Category:Rhode Island Republicans]] [[Category:Sisters of Mercy]] [[Category:Women in Rhode Island politics]] [[Category:20th-century Rhode Island politicians]]