House Rotary Committee Votes for Bill Providing Immunity to Sex Workers

PROVIDENCE — The House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday in favor of a bill that could grant immunity to sex workers who witness certain crimes, including prostitution, if they agree to try to cooperate to police investigations.

Some have said the bill could also hinder criminal investigations into prostitution and sex trafficking, and fear it is a step toward returning Rhode Island to a time when prostitution was legal.

But the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously in favor of the bill, which now goes to the House for a vote.

Committee Chairman Robert E. Craven Jr., a North Kingstown Democrat, said, “The purpose of this bill is to protect a woman who may have witnessed a more serious crime and who otherwise would not want to not cooperate due to responsibility. prostitution or other related activities.

Rep. Edith H. Ajello, the Providence Democrat who introduced the bill, said: “It would also allow a sex worker who is the victim of a crime perpetrated by an aspiring client — perhaps robbed, or perhaps beaten, or perhaps both – power would allow this individual to report the crime and the crime would be prosecuted”, and this sex worker would be “protected from this wrongdoer without fear of being herself accused of prostitution and sentenced to six months or one year in prison.

The bill, H7165, was lobbied by an overseas nonprofit group called Decriminalize Sex Work, founded by Robert Kampia with the mission “to end the ban on adult prostitution consensual – and to improve policies relating to other forms. sex work – in the United States.

And on Tuesday, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation produced a legal analysis, saying the bill contains a loophole that could be used to protect pimps, sex traffickers and sex buyers.

The center's vice president of public policy, Eleanor Gaetan, cited a section that would grant immunity to anyone who “witnesses” or “becomes aware that another person has been the victim of a crime” and reports it .

This language “would allow a pimp or trafficker to claim that he or she became aware that a prostitute was the victim of a crime – and to get away with engaging in trafficking,” he said. writes Gaetan. “In short,” she said, this language “gives bad actors a ‘get out of jail free card’ for no good purpose.”

Gaetan called for the elimination of this language and said, “This would advance justice for trafficking victims by not granting immunity from prosecution to smart or lawyerly traffickers.” »

—Amanda Milkovits of Globe RI staff contributed to this report.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be contacted at [email protected]. follow him @FitzProv.