Dallas Adult Entertainment: Dallas prostitutes given alternative to jail–on public’s dime
The city’s Prostitution Diversion Initiative entails a once-a-month camp-out of four command trucks, a mobile courtroom and health care clinic, multiple police officers and social workers and a judge, according to an Associated Press article. This coterie sets up shop in a vacant lot near truck stops that provide the bulk of the prostitutes‘ business and for eight hours every four weeks, officers question these people and confiscate their property. If the prostitutes have no felony warrants the judge gives them the option of doing a 45-day, in-patient rehabilitation program, followed by “help” with education, child care and housing.
…
We are not saying jail time is the most effective deterrent against prostitution; many prostitutes have been incarcerated for their profession on more than one occasion. What we are saying is rehab–especially given its high cost to the public–doesn’t seem look like an effective deterrent, either.