Opinion: Drug treatment for prostitutes

Few tactics are more frustrating and ineffective than arresting and jailing women involved in prostitution. Sometimes, mere hours pass before prostitutes return to their "posts" and prospective customers.

Now a bill (SB 570) headed to Gov. Jeb Bush would attempt to stop the revolving door in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, and Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, would provide drug treatment for prostitutes instead of jail time.

The idea is worth pursuing because researchers estimate the majority of women who sell their bodies do so to support a drug addiction. Treat the addiction and you largely remove the motivation for prostitution in many cases.

Drug use also increases the risks prostitutes face, because it can impair their ability to demand safe sex or protect themselves from violence. Those women who have children often become too impaired to care for them.

Adopting a treatment approach also can help clean up communities frequented by prostitutes and their clients. Reducing prostitution often has the broader effect of reducing loitering, littering and traffic snarls. And more efforts to treat drug addiction naturally result in a lowered incidence of theft and other types of crime addicts commit for money.

Under the legislation, prostitutes convicted twice or more would receive drug screening, assessment and a chance at rehabilitation. The bill also includes a behavior modification option for prostitutes' customers. The bill would stiffen penalties for repeat offenders. While a prostitute's first two arrests would be treated as misdemeanor offenses, a third arrest would bring a third-degree felony charge. Repeat clients could also face a year without a driver's license.

We hope Gov. Bush signs the legislation.

Back to Opinion

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

From the Times
Opinion page