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Manhattan to Stop Prosecuting Prostitution, Part of Nationwide Shift
"Criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer," Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said, adding that doing so often has the effect of "further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers." (AP)
Jonah E. Bromwich
Wed, April 21, 2021, 2:53 PM
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday that it would no longer prosecute prostitution and unlicensed massage, putting the weight of one of the most high-profile law enforcement offices in the United States behind the growing movement to change the criminal justice system’s approach to sex work.
The district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., asked a judge Wednesday morning to dismiss 914 open cases involving prostitution and unlicensed massage, along with 5,080 cases in which the charge was loitering for the purposes of prostitution.
The law that made the latter charge a crime, which had become known as the “walking while trans” law, was repealed by New York state in February.
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The announcement represents a substantive shift in the office's approach to prostitution. Many of the cases Vance moved to dismiss dated to the 1970s and 1980s, when New York waged a war against prostitution in an effort to clean up its image as a center of iniquity and vice.
“Over the last decade, we’ve learned from those with lived experience and from our own experience on the ground: Criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers,” Vance said in a statement.
The office will continue to prosecute other crimes related to prostitution, including patronizing sex workers, promoting prostitution and sex trafficking, and said that its policy would not stop it from bringing other charges that stem from prostitution-related arrests.
That means, in effect, that the office will continue to prosecute pimps and sex traffickers as well as people who pay for sex, continuing to fight those who exploit or otherwise profit from prostitution without punishing the people who for decades have borne the brunt of law enforcement’s attention.
Manhattan will join Baltimore, Philadelphia and other jurisdictions that have declined to prosecute sex workers. Brooklyn also does not prosecute people arrested for prostitution but instead refers them to social services before they are compelled to appear in court — unless the district attorney’s office there is unable to reach them.
The Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, in January moved to dismiss hundreds of open cases related to prostitution and loitering, and said that he would eventually ask that more than 1,000 be dismissed. The Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz, followed in March, moving to dismiss hundreds of prostitution-related cases.
Prosecutions for sex work had already been dropping dramatically over the past decade, said Abigail Swenstein, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Exploitation Intervention Project, with occasional spikes, such as one during 2014 when the Super Bowl was held at MetLife Stadium, in neighboring New Jersey.
She added that the vast majority of her clients over the last two years had been women arrested in massage parlors.
Swenstein said that Vance’s move would likely “have reverberations for sex workers and trafficking survivors well outside of New York City” and that it would make them feel “less stigmatized.” She commended the district attorney for having formulated the policy after talking to sex workers and others with relevant experience.
Vance’s office had been in the practice of dismissing prostitution cases after sending those charged to mandatory counseling sessions. Going forward, Vance’s statement said, such counseling sessions would be provided only on a voluntary basis.
Sex workers have been fighting for decriminalization for decades. But the 2019 formation of Decrim NY, a coalition of organizations that support full decriminalization and has worked to lobby lawmakers, represented a turning point for the movement.
In New York City, those calls have grown louder. Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, called on the state to end criminal penalties for sex workers.
“The communities hit hardest by the continued criminalization of sex work and human trafficking are overwhelmingly LGBTQ, they are people of color, and they are undocumented immigrants,” McCray said at the time. “Sex work is a means of survival for many in these marginalized groups.”
Declining to prosecute prostitution and other related crimes has also been a focus of candidates aiming to replace Vance, who announced in March that he would not run for reelection. The majority has said that it would halt the prosecutions if elected.
Eliza Orlins, a candidate for the office and a former public defender, has been particularly vocal, releasing a comprehensive policy paper on the subject in which she said that she would fight to make it legal in New York to buy and sell consensual sex. Whether to prosecute those who patronize prostitutes has been a subject of consistent debate among feminist organizations.
In an interview Wednesday, Orlins said that she was happy to see the shift but that it had taken too long and that, in continuing to prosecute those who patronize sex workers, the office had not gone far enough.
“Am I glad that someone in a position as powerful as the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is finally speaking out and saying that we shouldn’t be prosecuting people for engaging in their jobs? Of course I’m glad,” she said. “But do I think that he deserves to be held out as heroic by the movement when he has not done enough and acted quickly enough? No.”
Comments
So if I get this right, prostitution is OK for the business owner but the customers will be arrested? That will ruin another business along with mandatory restaurant, bar, etc has.
Brooklyn also does not prosecute people arrested for prostitution but instead refers them to social services
Reckon Social Workers is the correct term now
Marginalizing, a new word for ignoring crime based upon race.
when I use to watch the local news ( mostly Dayton Oh ) they would always post photos name and address of the "Johns " the fellows busted for being with a hooker . funny they never show the hooker the fellow would get some crazy fine and public shaming and of course the hooker had countless arrest would get some menial fine if that ( never a photo of her or him unless some other crime was involved ) and let them go, unofficial money maker for the courts
JMHO they did not want to lock them up ( hookers ) and have to care for them ( even though they said they had mental issues LOL ) that cost money and does not make money for them , of course they knew the customer was 99% a working class fellow so they could get money from him that was the target . the money .
I have always thought they should just legalize it any way so they could collect taxes there goal ( collect more money for the government be it local or national )
when I worked in Dayton many job sites were down town I lost track of the offers ( no I never took any up on it ) from the street walkers . honestly most all looked like they sorry to say rode hard and put away wet to coin a old cowboy saying but seems to fit
whoa,there for a minute I thought Dano was re-tiring again.
Legalize it like the rest of the world.
It is a clear example that ppl who are going to do it will, and people who won’t will stay away, legal or not.
Lots of politicians will sleep easier tonight.
I reckon they won't be needing to fly to some remote island.
I wanted to toss this in for fun
when i worked construction and in Dayton I started when I was about 18 any way the older fellows who I worked with . a lot of minorities but all were great guys I miss them all
we were talking about hookers one day and being the small town kid I had to ask .why as some of them had rented 😉before they told me well kid the free stuff is well OK they give it away , however you have to pay for the " good stuff" .. enough said
Oh, thank goodness. For a minute I thought that they had legalized large sodas.
I have been told that the most expensive sex, by far, is a wife. The second most expensive sex was that woman you picked up and slapped a quick one to. I could buy this because a quick one cost me a pretty good Dr. bill.
The cheapest sex is a Ho, a "sex worker".
back when Saturday night live was still a little funny and not political driven hate ; I remember a lot of the shows and skits any way
they did a news cast jobs in America best to worst
I was close by my memory . but decided to look it up to make sure to get it correct
but here it is I did change one word twice but you will catch it
Norm MacDonald:
Finally, according to the U.S. News & World Report 1997 Career Guide, the best job in the United States, for the second year in a row, is Interactive Business System Analyst. However, last year's worst job, Assistant Crack ....ho , has been replaced by a new worst job: Crack ...ho Trainee."
I have long argued that if "It's my body and nobody else can rule it" as it applies to abortion, then the same argument is true for prostitution. The same organs are involved.
Being a sex worker is dangerous, degrading, and often disgusting. But if that is someone's choice, for whatever reason, then maybe it's no one else's business to interfere.
The proposed shift in enforcement policy, however, is unacceptable. To continue to prosecute the buyers but not the sellers wouldn't stand for one minute if they were talking drugs, the users of which are considered victims. To treat drugs and sex as polar opposites is legally indefensible.
The liberal States Attorney in Baltimore has taken even broader steps:
Declaring the war on drugs over in Baltimore, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Friday she will make permanent her COVID-19 policy to dismiss all criminal charges for the possession of drugs including heroin.
The city’s top prosecutor also said she will continue to dismiss criminal cases for nonviolent crimes of attempted drug distribution, prostitution, trespassing, open containers and minor traffic offenses. Since her office stopped taking these cases one year ago, prosecutors have dismissed 1,400 criminal cases and a similar number of warrants, she said. Violent crime, meanwhile, has declined about 20% so far this year compared to the same three months of last year, largely before the coronavirus pandemic, according to police statistics. Similarly, property crime declined 35% when comparing those time periods.
“Clearly, the data suggests that there is no public safety value in prosecuting these low-level offenses,” Mosby said.
How many times have we fallen for this?
She made her announcement Friday outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse in her first public appearance since The Baltimore Sun reported last week of a federal criminal tax investigation into the state’s attorney and her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby. She did not discuss the investigation and directed all questions on the matter to her attorney.
An hour later, Mayor Brandon Scott held a press conference and was asked about the federal investigation into the Mosbys. He declined to comment. Federal prosecutors issued subpoenas to several churches, a children’s nonprofit and a campaign treasurer seeking records of donations and other financial documents related to the Mosbys.
In March of last year, Mosby instituted her policy to dismiss all criminal cases of drug possession, saying she wanted to reduce the prison population and risk of a coronavirus outbreak behind bars. The policy fell in line with other progressive strategies she has brought to Baltimore, including a plan started in 2019 to dismiss all marijuana charges.
Under Mosby’s COVID-19 policy, drug arrests have declined about 80% over last year, according to her office. Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said commanders rewrote the guidelines for officers after Mosby stopped prosecuting cases of drug possession. Mosby’s actions come as the possession of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs remain illegal under state law.
Mosby noted 911 calls for drug use, prostitution and public intoxication did not increase over the past year. In fact, she said the number of 911 calls for drugs declined by one-third compared to the same months before the pandemic. The 911 calls for sex work fell by half, she said.
In an interview, Harrison said officers are encouraged not to arrest someone for drugs, sex work or the other crimes listed by Mosby. Rather, they are encouraged to try to connect the person with help from social services or addiction treatment. If such an arrest is absolutely necessary, an officer would typically ask his or her supervisor for approval, Harrison said.
The commissioner said the pandemic likely had an effect on the decline in street crime by keeping people home who would otherwise become victims. He said he expects the arrest policies to remain in place, meaning officers will make arrests for drugs, sex work and other nonviolent offenses only rarely.
During her news conference, Mosby also announced a city partnership with Baltimore Crisis Response Inc. to direct people with drug addiction and those suffering mental-health crises to receive support and treatment — not a prison sentence. The center already is funded by state and federal grant money and will not cost the city more money, officials said.
“The concept is to provide a behavioral health rather than a criminal justice response” said Edgar Wiggins, the group’s executive director. “We have known for some time that this can be an effective way to address the underlying causes of this behavior.”
Brings a whole new meaning to;
Social distancing
Stimulus check
Sorry.....original post deleted as it was not very kind but true...
How would you pay yourself?
😂😂😂...
Combat Vet VN
D.A.V Life Member
A successful sale is when both the buyer and seller are happy with the transaction. What you are selling or buying is irrelevant.
Sex is important to maintaining good health. I say that if you have to pay for it, it should be tax deductible! 😁
If not acceptable then it should at least be covered by health insurance! 😁
my take on it they know they can not get money from the majority of drug users , hookers , so called low level crime and it cost them more to process them , house them in jail , take care of the medical needs feed them or possibly treat there mental health
Its a easy and cheap to say no were not going after them why they should say " there is no profit for us to bother with them "
Pot is legal, Prostitution... What is next? Rock and Roll ...
The recently returned artist is gonna be upset at his cancellation.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
So in NY, it is hookers and weed for everyone....sounds like a new slogan for their tourist board.....😲