Mass. could offer sex workers a way out of 'the life' with proposed bill

BOSTON — Calling it an easy piece of legislation to support, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan endorsed a bill, now wending its way through the Legislature, that would decriminalize sex trade workers while offering them a path to leave "the life."

“We should treat them as what they are, victims,” Ryan said. “People should not be selling people.”

The proposed legislation would retain criminal penalties for people convicted of purchasing sexual favors as well as those convicted of selling the sexual favors of others.

“People selling people need to be held accountable,” Ryan said.

The proposed sister bills filed in both houses are sponsored by Sens. Lydia Edwards, D-Boston, and Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington; and Reps. Mary Keefe, D-Worcester and Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield. Legislators in Maine passed a similar measure decriminalizing workers in the sex trade earlier this year.

The measures would offer an avenue for expunging convictions and felony records for past victims of the sex trade. It would also create a special commission tasked with creating a mechanism to offer housing, relocation services, physical and mental health care, education and job training, and legal assistance. It would even offer an avenue for reparations through a victim’s compensation fund.

Court fees and fines levied during the adjudication process on people arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution would be funneled to a Victims of Human Trafficking Trust Fund. The special commission would also work to create a statewide prevention and awareness program designed to deter youth from entering the sex trade.

“Our goal is to move people forward, to get them a way to move forward,” Ryan said at a recent presentation to legislative leaders held at the State House.

The proposed legislation does not decriminalize all aspects of the sex trade.

Ryan said that unless there are stiff penalties in place, “if someone benefits from selling someone, and they have the ability to sell them over and over again, year after year, there is no reason for them to stop.”

The cycle is traumatic and can affect multiple generations of women and their offspring, Ryan said, adding that in her work as a prosecutor, she has seen generations of people arrested on prostitution charges come through her office.

The EMMA Coalition Action Network, a statewide organization working to dismantle the sex trade, is a proponent of the bill, known as the Act to Strengthen Justice and Support for Sex Trade Survivors.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Legislation would decriminalize victims of sex trade in Massachusetts