Making Prostitution Illegal Will Encourage It
Published on 12-03-09 in The Providence Journal

Dear Editor:

Regarding the article by Edward Achorn in the Commentary page for 11-10-09 entitled: “R.I. summons the character to defy prostitution ‘industry’”:

I have thought of the word to describe what will happen to prostitution in Rhode Island now that the “indoor” option is illegal. The word is “metastasize.” It is a word from medicine that means to spread or pervade throughout a body, as a disease.

That is what will happen with prostitution in Rhode Island, and especially in Providence. It will return to the streets and corners of the city, and in bars and lounges. Soon the neighborhoods will complain to the mayor about the “pros” on their streets that draw drug dealers, thugs and other criminals. Neighborhood infestation by hookers was one reason the “indoor” option was allowed years ago. It will return. I give it 6 to 18 months.

Achorn claims that the unfortunate women who worked in the so-called “brothels” will now get help to leave that life. But the state could have provided social/health workers to visit the “spa-brothels” and determine that the women were not enslaved or abused, and that their children were cared for. Social workers could have helped the prostitutes leave that life. It will be much harder to locate and help such unfortunate women when they are spread around the state, and in worse living conditions than in the “spa-brothels.”

It is time, in our country, when we must finally grow up and understand that life is imperfect, and that we must learn to live with our flaws and not allow them to fester.

I am a humane man and not given to condemnation of my fellow human beings. Nevertheless, the attempt to legislate morality by the members of the General Assembly who voted for the ban is stupid, incompetent and cowardly, ---and will prove to be counterproductive.

T.R. CATANZARITE
Riverside