Over libertarian concerns, House Judiciary passes bill to ban indoor sex trade

By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Brushing aside arguments that the government should not intrude on what consenting adults do behind closed doors, the House Judiciary Committee Thursday voted 8-4 to approve legislation that makes prostitution illegal indoors as well as outdoors.

A loophole in the law has left law enforcement unable to prosecute prostitution unless a person was “loitering” outdoors offering sex acts for money.
But after four years of trying and, by her own estimate, tweaking various bills with at least 50 amendments, Rep. Joanne Giannini finally saw her legislation voted out of committee. It will now go to the House floor for a vote — sometime in the next two weeks, according to Judiciary Committee Chairman Donald Lally. It then goes to the Senate, where neither Giannini nor Lally would speculate on its chances for passage.
After the vote, Giannini called her victory “a start. I’m happy we finally go to a consensus. One of the main concerns we had was closing the loophole that Rhode Island being the only one” to not prosecute prostitution that is committed indoors.”
The committee vote did not come without a fight.
“I continue to have questions as to whether the General Assembly has any business getting involved in consensual sexual acts between two people,” said Rep. Edith Ajello. She said of the bill: “I don’t think it is going to solve the problem,” of women being forced into prostitution as a result of human trafficking.
“I don’t see why we should try to legislate what consenting adults do,” said Rep. Rodney Driver. “Regrettably, there is a lot of hanky-panky going on between people who are not married and the evidence is they keep having children,” he said. “Now somebody is probably paying the bills, does that make it prostitution, I don’t think so.
“Sure, if someone is there under coercion, I’d be against that totally, but the evidence I’ve heard and seen is that for the most part, they are there of their own free will,” Driver added. “That’s the way some people earn money. We may not like it, but I don’t know if it is the business of the General Assembly to tell them they can’t do it.”
Giannini rejected those arguments, saying to reporters, “is rape behind closed doors permissible? Is murder permissible if it is done behind closed doors? I think we have to have consistency in our state laws and right now we don’t.”
Lally told reporters after the meeting that, “being the only state in the nation without a law against indoor prostitution, I felt the people of Rhode Island wanted to make that illegal. And by an 8-4 vote, I think the committee showed that many of their constituents agree.”
The legislation allows an “affirmative defense” for those charged with prostitution if the accused was forced to commit a “commercial sexual activity,” by being subjected to or threatened with physical harm, being restrained or threatened with restraints, being subjected to threats of abuse of the legal process or by having a passport or other identifying document destroyed or confiscated.
That was not enough for Steven Brown, executive director of the state ACLU.
“Passage of this bill only further victimizes the victims,” Brown said, “it is unfortunate to see the committee take that route.”
Noting that women arrested for prostitution represent the largest percentage of inmates in the women’s prison at the ACI, he said, “all it does is harm more women.”
The defenses in the bill for women forced into prostitution against their will, he said, “will not help any true victim of trafficking in any way. The burden is on them to prove they are a victim of trafficking.
“Even the police say it is difficult to prove someone is a victim of trafficking,” he said. “It is hard to imagine the victims of trafficking providing evidence against their controller.”
Giannini said that if women know they are not going to be prosecuted, “they will be more willing to speak up,” than they have been in the past.