CARNAL NATION

The Rhode Island Senate voted 36-2 yesterday on a bill to criminalize indoor prostitution in the state, reports the Providence Journal.  (Besides certain counties in Nevada, Rhode Island is currently the only state in the US where prostitution is legal.)  On Wednesday the House passed the same bill.  If the governor signs it today, which he will any minute now, the law becomes effective immediately.

Both proponents and opponents of the bill agreed that the legislation was majorly flawed.  Many believed that the penalties were too harsh for first-time offenders, since a single arrest can land someone with a $500 fine or six months in jail.  Others believed that the law shouldn't go into effect immediately, so that workers in the state's thirty or so spas would have a chance to find other legal work.  One representative wanted to see counseling and STD education in lieu of prison sentences. Advocates from both the Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the state's rape crisis center testified that the penalties were too harsh.

Allegedly, the bill targets prostitutes, pimps, and johns equally.  But outdoor prostitution is already illegal here, and last year 182 women in Providence County went to jail for prostitution.  Almost half of them serving 100 days or more.  Somehow, though, the state managed not to incarcerate a single pimp or a single john.

I live in Rhode Island and testified against the bill in the State House on Tuesday.  One representative who favored it admitted that it was flawed.  But, she said, it's too late now to change.  She argued that it would be better to pass the bill now and look at changing it next year if things weren't going well.  Since the flawed legislation took four years to pass, I'm not holding out much hope for reforms or repairs any time soon.

(I posted a more personal take on the issue here.)