Filed under: hookers, people from rhode island | Tags: prostitution, rhode island, sadness
I testified at the State House last night against the proposed amendment to change the prostitution bill here in Rhode Island. I hadn’t been inside the building since a fifth-grade field trip, and it showed. I was overwhelmed. Clearly, visibly overwhelmed. As soon as I got up to speak my mouth dried up, I lost my voice, and all of a sudden I couldn’t read any of my own notes. I don’t know how I made it through, or if what I said made any sense. Either way, it didn’t make a difference. The bill passed the Judiciary Committee the way it is, and will be voted on by the full House tonight.
About twenty other people also testified. Signups to speak are first-come, first-served, but the first bunch were all people who supported it. The rep who introduced the bill, the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office, Citizens Against Trafficking (who are apparently up to three members now), and two people from the state police. The people who opposed the bill–at least the part of it that involves jail time for first offenders–included angry citizens (ie. me), the ACLU, a couple of lefty social organizations, a lawyer who defends spa workers, the Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and the local rape crisis center.
An amendment was offered by one rep to get rid of the jail time and replace it with counseling and HIV education and job training, but that got shot down by the others. The speaker said the state probably didn’t have enough money to offer job training (although it apparently does have enough money to pay for six months in prison for a first offense.) I don’t disagree with most of what you’re saying, one of them said. [I'm paraphrasing.] But we’ve all worked so hard on this compromise that it’s too late in the game to be changing anything. Why don’t we just pass this and maybe we can look at it again next year?
That kind of logic makes me sad. Very, very sad.
The Providence Journal article is here.
[UPDATE: RI Rep David Segal--who voted against the bill yesterday--has an article about everything up until two days ago on the Huffington Post now.]
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