MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - In an attempt to protect urban areas from the plague of AIDS, some state lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that would force prostitutes to undergo mandatory HIV tests upon conviction.
"The city system is not working to stop prostitution," said House bill Sponsor Henry Rizzo, D-Kansas City. "Prostitutes go back to the streets as soon as they are bailed out. They even meet the policemen who arrested them."
Rizzo voiced concern that under the current system, a prostitution charge is equivalent to a traffic ticket: you pay a 500 dollar fine and you're out.
"There's a lot of sexual activity out there and no protection. We have the names of several prostitutes with AIDS that keep on working on the streets, but we can't publicize them for federal and state restrictions," said Rizzo.
Kansas City Police Sgt. Jim Connelly, supervisor the city's vice unit, said there's no way of telling what the percentage of prostitutes with AIDS is because that information is confidential. But he said some sources have told him that the numbers are surprisingly low.
Despite that fact, both the Missouri House and Senate are making an effort to pass a bill that would require prostitutes to take an HIV test upon conviction . "If you tested positive once and are convicted of prostitution again it'll be a class C felony, which is seven years in prison and up to a $3000 fine," said Senate Bill Sponsor Ronnie DePasco, D-Kansas City. The class of the felony would be determined at the prosecutors's discretion.
"When you are talking about HIV, you're talking about a death sentence, murder. God knows how many people are out there infected who don't even know that they are, especially in the urban areas," Rizzo said.
DePasco voiced the same concern and explained that the Senate bill intends to crack down on drugs as well as AIDS because both things are interrelated. "Some statistics say that 60 or 70 percent of the prostitutes that work on the streets do so because they are addicted to drugs. Sixty percent of those probably test positive to HIV, and those are the people we are after."
Connelly agreed that most of the street prostitution is related to drug addiction.
Under the Senate bill prostitutes who are caught with drugs would face felony charges as well. After their first arrest, prostitutes would be put through an alcohol, drug and prostitution counseling program.
If the defendant completed the program successfully and was able to stay drug-free for at least one year, the court could erase the prostitution charges from the criminal record.
"Every once in a while we have these young runaways that are basically straight. We don't want this to be a mark for them for the rest of their lives," DePasco said.
Rizzo agreed that the intention of these programs is to help the prostitutes to change their lifestyle, not to trash it all the way.
"Right now we have as many as 5 or 6 hookers doing 30 arrests a month in Kansas City. Arresting them and giving them condoms has proved a failure, so we need to try something that really works," Rizzo said.