Rhode Island Council of Churches rally at State House against prostitution in April. At center is State Police Supt. Brendan Doherty.

Journal photo by Bob Thayer

PEOPLE ACROSS AMERICA are laughing at Rhode Island’s anything-goes attitude to indoor prostitution, but it’s not all that funny when you look beyond the titillation to the suffering and exploitation of our fellow human beings.

In recent weeks, it has come to light that children as young as 16 have been working as strippers here. It’s hard to believe some of them are not serving men sex.

That is why such esteemed institutions as New York City-based Covenant House, the largest agency serving homeless and sexually exploited youth in the U.S., plead with Rhode Island to change its ways.

It is why such experts as U.S. State Department official Luis CdeBaca, ambassador at large to combat human trafficking and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, have spoken out about the shameful situation in the Ocean State.

“I was surprised to learn that in Rhode Island . . . prostitution is legal so long as it happens indoors, and girls as young as 16 years of age can legally dance in strip clubs,” Ambassador CdeBaca said during a recent speech in Washington.

“It is a legitimate concern that such a hands-off approach towards the so-called ‘sex industry’ can result in a zone of impunity in which police can’t go, and where traffickers can exploit their prey,” he said. Unless the indoor-prostitution loophole is closed, the state could “become a magnet for commercial sexual exploitation.”

It’s not just young teenagers. It’s also women brought to the state, many from Asia, as virtual slaves, to serve one customer after another in so-called spas.

In Rhode Island, there are good people trying earnestly to fix this problem.

Under the leadership of Speaker William Murphy, the House this year passed a compassionate bill championed by state Rep. Joanne Giannini (D.-Providence), by a resounding margin of 62 to 8, equalizing the penalties for indoor and outdoor prostitution. The state police, attorney general and Rhode Island Police Chiefs’ Association all supported the bill, as did The Journal, Governor Carcieri, religious leaders and, I would venture to guess, most Rhode Island citizens.

But a few powerful figures stand in the way — state senators who, for reasons only they fully know, refused to pass a true companion bill and have substituted in its place a strikingly weaker one that many experts believe would expand the misery of child abuse and human trafficking. Those in this camp include Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, Charles Levesque, Rhoda Perry, Paul Jabour and Michael McCaffrey. It seems astonishing that their constituents would put up with such behavior, but there you have it.

These senators disingenuously argue that their bill successfully closes the loophole permitting indoor prostitution. What it does is weaken the punishments for pimping and prostitution, which would surely encourage more of it.

Prostitution must be a crime for police to get involved and start to rescue those trapped in abuse and slavery. As the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has pointed out, Rhode Island has been left out of a major effort to combat the sex trafficking of children (the Innocence Lost National Initiative) because it lacks enforcement capability. And weakening our laws could invite into the state more sex businesses that wish to evade harsh federal law enforcement, former federal prosecutor Robert Flores warns.

None of this is compassionate to women — the senators’ specious assertion. Nor is it compassionate to encourage runaway children to become prostitutes.

“The Senate bill will consign children and young adults to a future and a misery that no one who has not endured it can imagine,” Mr. Flores contends.

Laura Lederer, a leading expert on prostitution and pimping laws, and a former top U.S. official on human trafficking, strongly supports Representative Giannini’s bill. She speaks of the late Norma Hotaling, an 18-year prostitute who escaped that dangerous and disheartening life and devoted herself to serving women and children trapped in prostitution.

“Norma told me that she owed her life to the laws and law-enforcement officers who arrested her for prostitution — because it forced her into the services that she needed — chemical detox, food, clothing and shelter, medical assistance, legal assistance, and finally therapy,” Ms. Lederer writes. “She became a light and a leader for all those still caught in this terrible exploitation. Saving lives is what criminalizing prostitution is ultimately about.”

Surely, the hearts of our legislators are not so hardened that they cannot sympathize with these poor people. When they return to work in September, both chambers should pass Representative Giannini’s bill.

Citizens, meanwhile, should urge Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed (401-222-6655) and her fellow senators to relent, do the right thing, save lives, repair Rhode Island’s reputation and strike a real blow against child abuse and human trafficking. This is one the voters should make a point of remembering in November 2010.

Edward Achorn is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor ( eachorn@projo.com).