Prostitution

“The oldest profession” appeared to weigh heavily on the minds of some legislators this session, due to some recent highly publicized police raids on Providence “spas” claiming to offer massage services that were actually fronts for prostitution. Even though police officials acknowledged that the women, mostly foreign, were likely the victims of human trafficking, the city pushed a bill designed to increase the criminal sentences that could be imposed on them, without going after the traffickers at all. After the ACLU mounted a strong lobbying effort against the bill, the sponsors withdrew the legislation. Not to be outdone, however, the General Assembly instead passed a separate law in the closing hours of the session, requiring all licensed massage therapists to be fingerprinted and undergo nationwide criminal records check for any “sexual offense.” The ACLU pointed out, to no avail, that the prostitutes being arrested in the spa raids were unlicensed, and that the law would only burden legitimate therapists without having any impact whatsoever on the problem it was allegedly designed to address. Further, the criminal background checks required by the law are actually more extensive and onerous than those required for nursing home employees and other sensitive state-licensed occupations. The ACLU also objected, unsuccessfully, to the bill’s stereotypical premise, equating licensed massage therapy with prostitution.