To understand how Rhode Island became the only state in America to decriminalize prostitution, you have to go back to the mids, when a powerful politician and devout Roman Catholic named Matty Smith helped advance the cause of a former prostitute named Margo St.
Though few recall the details of this chapter in history, three decades later lawmakers are still coping with the consequences. During a stop in Rhode Island, she met the owner of a downtown Providence strip club. The police, he told her, were on his back for letting prostitutes hang out at his bar. He offered her a tour of his club. Then, he introduced her to his lawyer.
In a federal lawsuit, the group argued that the statute was so broad that it could prohibit sex between unmarried adults. Back then, prostitution in Rhode Island was a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Yet, despite well-publicized reports of prostitution going on in places such as the Civic View Inn, just down the street from the police station, only a handful of arrests there resulted in convictions, mostly involving small fines and probation.
The neighborhood had a powerful ally in Matthew J. Smith had built his power base by getting things done for his constituents. And he told a Journal reporter he was worried that Roger Williams Park, where his father had once mowed the grass, was becoming a hangout for gays.
