Posted on: November 3, 2009; In: Community, RWU School of Law
When Rhode Island Governor Donald A. Carcieri signed a bill today outlawing indoor prostitution in Rhode Island, the first-year law student whose efforts were instrumental in securing the law’s passage was on hand by special invitation.
Melanie Shapiro, 22, a current student at Roger Williams University School of Law who co-founded and co-directs Citizens Against Trafficking, has been confronting the issue of indoor prostitution in Rhode Island for years. Working together with Professor Donna Hughes of the University of Rhode Island, she played a key role in getting the issue front-and-center before the state legislature and urging its passage into law.
Shapiro’s numerous penetrating and detailed reports on the issues circulated widely among law enforcement personnel and members of the Rhode Island General Assembly prior to the historic vote. Most of these reports are available on the Citizens Against Trafficking website; one of the more comprehensive, titled “Sex Trafficking and Decriminalized Prostitution Indoors in Rhode Island,” can be read online.
“When you legalize something, you legitimize it,” Shapiro says. “And I could never stand behind legitimizing something so inherently dangerous to women and children. Rhode Island was part of an international legislative debate about prostitution. The whole world was watching. This change here will have policy implications throughout the world for countries like India, which were on the verge of decriminalization.”
Shapiro’s strong opinions and hands-on, confrontational approach to the issue have often put her into the line of fire, and she has a dramatic story to tell. “I have experienced a lot of backlash and direct confrontation with pimps, madams, managers and other perpetrators; as well as verbal and print attacks from the opposition,” she notes.
The Rhode Island bill’s sponsors, Rep. Joanne M. Giannini, D-Providence, and Sen. Paul V. Jabour, D-Providence, have publicly acknowledged Shapiro’s positive influence on the bill’s passage. Her report and many other writings on the topic have circulated within the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and many other organizations. She has been widely quoted by news organizations including the Providence Journal, the National Review and the Associated Press, and has appeared on local radio television networks, and interviewed for background by such publications as the Wall Street Journal.
About RWU Law: The Roger Williams University School of Law is the only law school in Rhode Island, and offers future attorneys a rigorous, world-class legal education in a supportive, personalized environment. A top-notch faculty and strong student culture, plus a commitment to public service, drive the school’s rapidly growing reputation for preparing graduates for practice in the 21st century.
About RWU: Roger Williams University is a leading independent, coeducational liberal arts university at which students live and learn to be global citizens. With 40 academic programs and an array of co-curricular activities on its Bristol, R.I., campus, RWU is committed to its mantra of learning to bridge the world. Under the leadership of President Roy J. Nirschel, Ph.D., the University has achieved unprecedented academic and financial successes. In 2009, U.S. News & World Report named RWU the seventh-ranked baccalaureate college in the north.
feminist.
That’s so great but I guess that outdoor prostitution is illegal already? Hence the ‘indoor’ one being illegal.
Either way, a major plus to help women and kids.
Actually Jess, no it isn’t a big plus to help women and kids. What Melanie Shapiro and her mentor Donna Hughes fail to illustrate is that now the very prostitutes Shapiro and Hughes are claiming to be helping are going to be arrested. Where they weren’t before. Which eliminates going to the police as an option for these prostitutes when they are victimized by crime such as rape, assault, etc. Beyond that, the prostitutes, that are convicted as a result of the work of Shapiro/Hughes, now have a criminal conviction on their resume/job applications when they try to get jobs outside the sex industry.
Beyond that, if they were victimized by sexual assault, and try to take their case to court. They have to face being labeled by the jury and defense attorneys as criminals. There is no doubt about how hard it is for any rape victim to get justice much less one that society and the justice system is labeling a criminal.
This has only made it worse for the very women it allegedly is supposed to protect. Prostitution has ended in Rhode Island. But life has been made harder for prostitutes and for trafficking victims as a result of Shapiro and Hughes efforts.