Registered: Oct 2009
From: Providence, R.I.

R.I. House committee to consider new prostitution bill Tuesday

6:03 PM Mon, Oct 26, 2009
Lynn Arditi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The House Judiciary Committee Tuesday will consider a new bill that would make indoor prostitution a crime, but would empower judges to erase any record of charges for convicted prostitutes after one year.

The bill would treat prostitution differently from other non-violent misdemeanor crimes, which can be "expunged" only for first offenders -- and then, only five years after the sentence is completed. Prostitutes with multiple convictions, by contrast, would still be eligible to have the charges erased, according to a copy of the bill provided to The Journal

The bill has been described as a compromise between House and Senate leaders, who tried and failed earlier this year to reach agreement on legislation to close a nearly 30-year-old loophole in the state's prostitution law.

Rhode Island is the only place in the nation, other than certain counties in Nevada, where prostitution is legal if it occurs indoors.

The compromise bill treats prostitutes who work in brothels or out of their homes the same as prostitutes who ply their trade on the streets: both would face criminal misdemeanor fines or imprisonment, or both. First offenders would face fines of $250 to $1,000, and up to six months in prison, or both; multiple offenders face up to a year in prison.

The bill is scheduled for a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Room 35 of the State House. A Senate hearing and possible votes in both chambers could come Wednesday and Thursday, the days legislators have set aside for a special session to take up legislation left unfinished when the Assembly recessed in June.


It was George Carlin who said it best: I don't understand why prostitution is illegal. Selling is legal. Fucking is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal? You know, why should it be illegal to sell something that's perfectly legal to give away? I can't follow the logic on that one at all! Of all the things you can do, giving someone an orgasm is hardly the worst thing in the world. In the army they give you a medal for spraying napalm on people! In civilian life you go to jail for giving someone an orgasm!
And this idiocy is from a General Assembly that screws the people of this State on a daily basis and we have to pay for the "privilege" URL submitted by user.URL submitted by user.

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Registered: Jun 2000
From: the MANCANNON!

1) It's fucking Rhode Island
2) You linked on your first post, a major no-no
3) You shouldn't take everything you hear from fat, bald, rich radio hosts as gospel.

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