State representatives David Segal and Edith Ajello have written a thoughtful piece in today’s Providence Journal laying out their reasons for voting against H5044, which would criminalize all prostitution (including that which occurs indoors). They lay out the realities that might actually cause this proposed legislation to weaken efforts to prosecute the traffickers while sending victims of trafficking to prison. Segal and Ajello support separate legislation, citing the director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Section of the Civil Rights Division, Robert Moosy who has noted. . .

. . . that trafficking victims usually fear law enforcement precisely because they worry they will be prosecuted for prostitution. The proposed law would legitimate and deepen this fear, and lessen the likelihood that women would approach the authorities.

In May the Providence Journal covered the general assembly’s fight over the controversial bill, identifying state and local police departments as supporters while,

Opponents of the bill generally fall into two categories: those such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes what it views as an intrusion into peoples’ privacy, and those such as members of Brown University Students Against Human Trafficking, who say that criminalizing indoor prostitution will mean prosecuting prostitutes, who they view as victims.