Filed under: hookers, people from rhode island | Tags: prostitution, rhode island, the law
The Senate passed the bill.
Now, either Paul Jabour’s bill (which fines prostitutes and their clients equally) needs to pass the House, or Joanne Giannini’s bill (which is theoretically more lenient to victimized women) needs to pass the Senate. Or they can come up with some sort of compromise. Which may or may not happen, given Jabour’s tone in the Journal article: “Representative Giannini has done a tremendous amount of work on this,” Jabour said Thursday. “If she wants something passed, I want Joanne to consider amending her bill.”
This bill wasn’t even on the Senate’s calendar yesterday. Another one, aimed at human trafficking, was supposed to be voted on. That bill was sponsored by Rhoda Perry, who opposed the anti-prostitution bill until yesterday but ended up voting for it anyway. I have no idea whether her bill was voted on, or what the changes were that led her to change her mind.
I’ll let you know more as things develop, although I’ve got an article due today for someone else and at 11:30 I have a press conference to go to. So we’ll see.
