Nov. 4
Did anyone else not know that prostitution was legal in Rhode Island until this week?
More than 30 suspect brothels could be raided by police soon as Gov. Don Carcieri signed legislation Tuesday banning prostitution and making it a misdemeanor.
Rhode Island was, until now, the only state except Nevada where prostitution was not a crime. This began in the Ocean State as a loophole in 1980 when legislators passed legislation aimed at cracking down on people who sold sex in “public,” which was a major problem in Providence’s West End. Judges would later rule that the law actually made prostitution legal in private, and the brothels sprung up all over. The effect was that a law aimed at cracking down on the sex trade actually made it proliferate.
But the part’s over now.
John Guilfoil is the editor-in-chief of Blast: Boston's Online Magazine. He can be reached at guilfoil.j@blastmagazine.com.
Thank god they outlawed prostitution. Now the streets will turn into crime zones and they ladies can get wellfare . It took 2000 years but now it’s done
First I embrace “Yes I Can”, then my medic insurance doubles, I get laid off, My house gets forclosed on, NOW my wife and 3 daughters are going to loose their jobs? When are the polatitions going to be held accountable for screwing us????
Brilliant !! Unemployment @ 13%, while cutting police jobs RI pushes prostitution out of enclosed buildings and onto the streets. Maybe these women can get 2yrs of state unemployment or welfare, ITS Ok we have Plenty of Tax money to cover everyone forever . For those that rest better tonight believing they have shutdown prostitution…. It’s been around since Crist himself, now they’ll move out if the city and into the suburbs… Brilliant! And by the way moron’s the time to redirect these women on prostitution to real jobs are when there are jobs to be had. Is the state sponsoring a job fair to help these poor ignorant beautiful women forced into sex with your husbands? Nope. So now instead of getting screwed for money…… They can just get screwed
Check out “Happy Endings?” a documentary on Asian massage parlors in RI during the debate to re criminalize prostitution.
http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Endings-David-Cicilline-Providence/dp/B002KBIIPQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1251586772&sr=8-7