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The Indiana House on Monday unanimously passed a bill that would create a court-ordered prostitution offender education program in Indiana.
The Senate will now consider House Bill 1269, which is authored by Rep. Maureen Bauer, D-South Bend.
“HB 1269 gives judges another tool to hold offenders accountable while also addressing the broader harms caused by prostitution and human trafficking,” Bauer said in a press release issued by the Indiana House Democrats Monday evening. “This bill recognizes that accountability, education and prevention must go hand in hand. By establishing a statewide framework, we can create more consistency across Indiana while directing resources toward victim services and local communities.”
HB 1269 would establish a program that courts could send offenders to as part of their sentencing for a conviction of making an unlawful proposition. The program would provide information on and address topics such as:
- what causes prostitution and its relationship to human trafficking;
- the health risks associated with prostitution;
- penalties for convictions related to making an unlawful proposition; and
- the effects of human trafficking on victims.
An offender who is required to complete the program would pay up to $500 to participate. Under the bill, $100 of the fee would go toward the law enforcement agency that arrested the offender, while $200 would go to the state comptroller to be put in Indiana’s Human Trafficking Prevention and Victim Assistance Fund.
The fund, which was established under Indiana Code Section 5-2-6-25, was created to support human trafficking victim services and programs across the state and does not currently have dedicated funding.
The remaining $200 would be paid to the county that is operating the prostitution offender program. This money would be deposited in the county general fund and allocated to cover the county’s expenses for participating in the program.
Bauer worked on the bill with Raindrops Rising, a Valparaiso-based nonprofit organization that advocates for and raises awareness for survivors of sexual violence, according to their website.
The nonprofit did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
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