REVOLVING DOOR An Analysis of Street-Based Prostitution in New York City The Urban Justice Center Revolving Door An Analysis of Street-Based Prostitution in New York City URBAN JUSTICE CENTER Sex Workers Project This report was written by Juhu Thukral, Esq. and Melissa Ditmore, Ph.D., and reviewed by Berny Horowitz, Ph.D., for the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center (SWP). The SWP’s overarching mission is to advocate for sex workers, former sex workers, and those who are profiled or at risk for engaging in sex work, including victims of human trafficking, within a context of harm reduction, human rights, and workers’ rights/economic justice. © Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center 2003 Acknowledgements The Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center would like to thank the New York Foundation and the Oak Foundation for their generous support for this research. The researchers would also like to thank Michael Carden, Priscilla Alexander, Kate Aguilar, Daniel Nalepka, Shirley Cumberbatch, Subrena Shaw, and Elsie Bermudez of From Our Streets with Dignity (FROSTD); Aida Leon, Marie Colosimo, Francine Licastro, Mary O’Connor, Douglas Oakley, Annette Quinones, and Lisa Valentin of Amethyst Women’s Project; Heather Barr, Corinne Carey, and Anya Mukarji-Connolly of the Urban Justice Center; Moshay Moses of Positive Health Project; Sejal Zota of Bronx Defenders; Sam Tsemberis of Pathways to Housing; Karen DeRiso, anthropologist; Mishi Faruqee of The Correctional Association; Sally MacNichol of Connect; John Feinblatt and Michelle Sviridoff of the Mayor’s Criminal Justice Coordinator’s Office; Melissa Blake and Prostitutes of New York; “Parker;” Judge Martin Karopkin, Brooklyn Family Court (formerly of Brooklyn Criminal Court); The Coalition for the Rights of Sex Workers, Montreal, Canada; Michelle Ronda, Jean Kovath and Carroll Seron at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; Barbara Ditman; Raul Sanchez and Adam Mansky of Midtown Community Court and the Center for Court Innovation; New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services; Shelley Fuld Nasso; Ada Chu; Jack Taylor and Angus McIntyre for their help preparing this report; and others who wished to remain anonymous, but whose input was invaluable to this report. This work could not have been completed without the assistance and support of Douglas Lasdon and Valentina Morales of the Urban Justice Center, Catherine Poulcallec-Gordon, and Jeffrey Yamaguchi. The researchers would especially like to thank all those who answered our questions, with extraordinary gratitude for the sex workers who were so generous with their time. This report would not have been possible without their assistance. It is dedicated to them. Acknowledgements 1 Table of Contents 2 Figures 4 Executive Summary 5 Introduction 5 Key Findings 5 Demographics 6 Housing 6 Substance Dependency 6 Alternative Sentencing/Mandated Services 6 Family Situations 6 Police Interactions 6 Violence From Customers 8 Working 8 Future Plans and Attaining Goals 9 Legal and Other Needs 9 Key Conclusions 10 Key Recommendations 10 Public Discussion 10 Housing 10 Programs and Services 11 Criminal Justice Policy 11 Police Interaction with Prostitutes 11 Mandated Services 11 Violence Against Prostitutes 11 Interference With Public Health Outreach Efforts 12 Introduction 13 New York City Context 13 Literature 17 Legal models addressing prostitution 20 Prostitution Laws in New York State 22 Criminal Law 22 CONTENTS Civil Law 23 Housing 23 Sex Workers as Victims of Sex Offenses 23 Methodology 24 Interviews 25 Sex Workers 25 Other Actors and Street Personalities 26 Service Providers and Advocates 26 City Agencies and Administrators 26 Ethnography 26 Statistical information 27 Findings 28 Demographics 29 Ethnicity/Race 29 Gender 29 Age 29 Involvement in prostitution 29 Housing Crisis 30 Substance Dependency 31 Alternative Sentences and Mandated Services 32 Family Situations 33 Police Interactions 34 Run-ins and Harassment 34 Police Violence 36 Police Violence and Sexual Harassment 37 Arrests 38 False Arrests 40 Entrapment 42 Attempts to Avoid Police Interaction 42 Tickets 44 Violence From Customers 44 Safety Precautions 46 Reporting Violent Incidents to the Police 47 Good Police Interactions 47 Working 49 Work Locations 49 Working Indoors versus Outdoors 49 Familiarity With Customers 50 Other Street Personalities 51 Finances 52 Arrest-Related Fears 52 Difficulties and Danger 53 Work History 54 Entry to Prostitution and Difficulties Exiting 54 Prior Employment 55 Future Plans and Attaining Goals 56 Neighborhood Complaints 59 Legal and Other Needs 60 Criminal 60 Child Welfare 61 Housing 61 Counseling and Supportive Services 62 Subjects’ Views 62 Views on Legal Change 64 Views of Service Providers and Advocates 65 Housing 65 Programs and Services 67 Availability of Services 67 Types of Programs and Services that Sex Workers Need 69 Economic Issues 71 Career Opportunities 71 Healthcare 72 Criminal Justice Policy 72 Police Interaction with Prostitutes 72 Mandated Services 73 Violence from Customers or Other Street Personalities 75 Interference with Public Health Outreach Efforts 75 Organized Prostitution Networks and Pimps 77 Conclusions 78 Recommendations 80 Public Discussion 80 Housing 80 Programs and Services 81 Criminal Justice Policy 81 Police Interaction with Prostitutes 81 Mandated Services 82 Violence Against Prostitutes 82 Interference With Public Health Outreach Efforts 83 Organized Prostitution Networks And Pimps 83 Recommendations for Further Inquiry 84 Appendix A - Interview Protocol 85 Bibliography 94 Figures Figure 1: Arrests for Prostitution 14 Figure 2: Ethnicity/Race of Respondents 29 Figure 3: Age of Respondents 29 Figure 4: Age of Entry by Years in the Industry 30 Figure 5: Intensity of Interactions Initiated by Law-Enforcement 34 Figure 6: Most Recent Arrest Charges 39 Figure 7: Map of Precinct Boundaries 76 Figure 8: Trends in New HIV Infections Among Street-Based Sex Workers 76 EExecutive Summary “People need to understand, every hooker is not out there because they want to be, ... [there are] circumstances that keep people out there ... there are young kids out there . .voices that need to be heard ... You can say, ‘Get off my corner and move,’ but you don’t know if that person has any place to go to, you don’t know if that person has just been beat up, or forced to be out there.” - Charlotte Introduction Police and prostitutes1 engage in a cat-and-mouse dynamic, in which the police seek to control the activities of prostitutes, and prostitutes respond by trying to avoid them. This report examines the impact of law enforcement approaches to street-based sex work in New York City and proposes a series of policy and practice recommendations for reform based on the researchers’ analyses of the data collected. This report also seeks to promote reasoned, fact-based, and informed debate regarding street-based prostitution in New York City. Public discussion of this issue usually occurs in flashy headlines that are meant to titillate rather than to explore the consequences of policy decisions in depth. This is a special effort to give voice to the problems faced by street-based sex workers, using their own words, since this is a voice that is almost always left out of policy debates. We propose recommendations based on programmatic possibilities that can create effective solutions for this population and the broader community. The researchers focused on street-based prostitution primarily because these sex workers have the greatest contact with law enforcement and with the community at large, and thus receive the majority of police attention. Most are economically deprived and vulnerable. Current law enforcement approaches include arrest or giving a summons or desk-appearance ticket, often during the course of police sweeps (the practice of arresting all women or all people in a known prostitution area, temporarily removing prostitutes from the street.) However, this police strategy often results in women being falsely arrested or experiencing harassment. Moreover, as a result of these approaches, most prostitutes who have faced violence do not consider turning to the police for help. This problem is compounded by the fact that police do not always respond to the complaints of sex workers. In some instances, this has led to violence against prostitutes being ignored even when it is reported to police. This report is entitled “Revolving Door” to reflect the phenomenon of frequent arrests that result in prostitutes repeatedly going in and out of the court system, spending nights at Rikers Island or in court pens at enormous expense, and coming back out only to face the same situation, with no lasting change or benefit to prostitutes or the surrounding community. This cycle is not merely ineffective, but it is tremendously expensive: people convicted of prostitution and prostitution-related offenses who are sentenced to jail serve their sentences in City jails at the cost of $64,000 per year, $175 per day.2 To this must be added the costs of law enforcement and the operation of the criminal court system, plus the human cost - not measurable in monetary terms, but very great nonetheless - of criminalizing people who could instead be helped to become self-sufficient at far lower public expense. A change in official policy towards prostitutes including provision of long-term housing combined with provision of intensive and effective services are critical in order to end this cycle of arrests. Key Findings The sample consisted of 30 street-based prostitutes. Interview sites in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx were chosen with cooperating organizations that directed researchers to currently active prostitution areas. Although the sample size was small, the researchers were consistently told very similar things from subjects with very different demographic profiles. This supports a conclusion that the information presented was indicative of the general situation of street-based sex workers. Additionally, service providers and advocates were able to corroborate some of the information we received and attest to the general reliability of the respondents.