An Act To Amend the Penalties for Engaging in Prostitution
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 17-A MRSA §853-A, sub-§1, ¶B, as amended by PL 2007, c. 476, §29, is further amended to read:
B. The person violates paragraph A and, at the time of the offense, the person has one or more prior convictions under this section or for engaging in substantially similar conduct to that contained in this section in another jurisdiction. Section 9-A governs the use of prior convictions when determining a sentence, except that, for the purposes of this paragraph, the date of the prior conviction may not precede the commission of the offense by more than 2 years. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D E crime.
summary
This bill amends the penalty provision for the crime of engaging in prostitution. For a first offense, the bill retains the current law designation of the crime as a Class E crime. For a 2nd or subsequent conviction within 2 years of engaging in prostitution, the bill changes the designation from a Class D crime to a Class E crime.