Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Prostitute? Rehab or Jail

Dallas Texas is offering prostitutes picked up at truck stops the option of rehab or jail.  These sex workers are rounded up offered immediate medical treatment, interviewed about illicit activities of pimps such as trafficking of underage girls, and then off to mobile court.  Here if the sex worker is sincere about turning his/her life around then he/she can enter into rehab. 

So far the program has rounded up 375 women, and only half have picked the rehab option.  21 women have left sex work.

I have a few issues with this.  The first being this option "jail or rehab" appears only to be offered to women.  Second it makes the assumption that sex workers are victims.  This is not always the case, and while I would like to make sex work safer and provide sex workers with anti-drug programs making the option "jail or rehab" is not the way to go about it.  But assuming like the article suggests all sex workers are victims why is the alternative to rehab jail?  By refusing rehab does one lose his/her victim status?

This feels very much like pushing the perception that sex workers need to be saved.

No comments: