(Article published in Street Speech by the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless)
If you drive at night around the Hilltop area of Columbus or East Broad or East Main you will see them- women who are working the streets. Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking in America. National statistics on prostitution are alarming: 96% of women who become prostitutes begin as youthful runaways. 33% enter prostitution before the age of 15, and 62 % before the age of 18 (many, some right here in Columbus, have histories of being sold by their parents to support a drug habit). 82% are physically assaulted, 68% have been raped while working, and 27% by multiple assailants. 83% of women have been threatened with a weapon. 75% of women who work as prostitutes will attempt suicide. The average life expectancy of a women engaged in prostitution is age 34 and almost all the women who work in this trade are addicted to drugs and alcohol. In Columbus, Ohio approximately 1,200 women year face solicitation charges, while the johns remain in the shadows.
Most communities are not prepared to address the complex
needs of these women, including chemical dependency, post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injuries from frequent beatings, homelessness,
estrangement from families, loss of children taken into custody by social
services, and a lack of education and vocational training. However, women here in Columbus charged with
prostitution are receiving a unique opportunity to address their plethora of needs
through an innovative docket court run by a very special judge.
Judge Paul Herbert of Franklin County Municipal Court, after
years of listening to the stories of the women who appeared before him in
court, became convinced that their stories were not stories about choice, but of
survival. He says, “I used to be one of
those people who said it [prostitution] was a victimless crime- that’s not
true.”
Most, he found, had a history of childhood abuse and poverty. Young girls run away from home to escape, but
once on the street they often fall victim to “dope boys” (the term that has
replaced “pimp) who exploit them, drawing them into the violent world of human
trafficking, addiction, and dehumanization.
These women are typically arrested repeatedly. They clog the courts, overflow the jails and
cost the taxpayer a considerable sum. Thus
in August of 2009 Judge Herbert decided to try a different approach to the
problem. He joined with other groups
like Doma International, which seeks to break the orphan cycle by empowering
women to care for themselves and their children around the world, and Amethyst,
a local residential program for women and their children transitioning out of
homelessness, substance abuse and domestic violence. He put together a community support team with
training and experience working with trauma victims and chemical dependency and
created an innovative alternative approach to help women caught up in this
cycle. Now women who face solicitation
charges in a Columbus, Ohio courtroom are offered a choice between jail time (between
30 days to six months), or the opportunity to enter the Changing Actions to
Habits Program (CATCH), a voluntary
two-year program.
The CATCH program provides a chance for recovery. The majority are referred to Amethyst Inc.
because it is a long-term treatment program, there is no quick fix to the
multiplicity of issues these woman must address, not the least of which is not
having any concept of any other kind of life.
Nanon Morrison, Development Director at Amethyst said, “Our program is
unique because women are usually in it for an average of two to three years, or
longer. Besides getting substance abuse
treatment, the women receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) and take parenting classes. ” The CATCH program also requires the women
to wear an ankle bracelet with a GPS so authorities know where they are at all
times. They must agree to be drug tested
on a regular basis, have curfews, and must comply with stay away zones (areas
of the city they must avoid).
Participants must also appear each Thursday in court to report their
progress.
Judge Herbert explains the goals of the program this way:
“I’m not minimizing the fact that they have committed a crime, in fact, I’m
pretty tough when I need to be to separate them from whatever is causing them
to backslide or relapse. I’ll put them
in jail- I have no qualms about that. What I am attempting to do here, what this
experiment is trying to do, is to build up the personal accountability of the
individual, yet also exact restorative justice in the process so the end result
is a more self-sufficient citizen who is giving back to the community.”
For women who complete the program successfully, most have
their conviction dismissed and expunged. The Ohio legislature appears to be getting in
line with this new enlightened approach too since the House just passed a bill
increasing penalties for those profiting from human trafficking, while also
increasing help for the victims. A fund has
been established from money seized from convicted drug trafficking offenders to
help pay for services for the victims.
I had the opportunity to attend CATCH court recently to see
firsthand how it works. It meets every
Thursday from 1:30-3:30 at 375 North High Street, courtroom 12C, and is open to
the public (all women- men need advance approval to attend). All of the women in the CATCH program the day
I was there shared their stories with everyone in the courtroom. Some had
positive accomplishments to report; one woman talked about making contact with
estranged family members and her attempts at reconciliation with them (her
mother and son were there in court for the first time that day). Another woman talked about how she was finally
on the verge of obtaining her GED.
Others shared personal insights they had gained about their life choices
and their struggle to heal from their painful pasts. Sometimes Judge Herbert asked a question or
made a comment; always each woman’s summary of her progress included how many
days she had been clean. This was
followed by a rousing round of applause from everyone in the courtroom. I was struck by the willingness of these women
to be so transparent about themselves and their lives in a public forum. I could sense real love and support coming
from the women for each other and the compassion of this judge, who remembered
each woman’s name and story, was heartwarming. At some point in the proceedings the bailiff began
to bring in a few prisoners in shackles.
A newly arrested woman was given the opportunity to consider participating
in CATCH and to hear directly from the other women in the program about it. She was willing to give it a try and was
returned to jail to complete the process.
Another woman, who had completed six months in the program, had recently
been re-arrested after returning to the streets. Judge Herbert remembered her and told her how
sorry he was that she had relapsed. He told her how much potential he saw in
her and how afraid he was for her chances of survival on the streets. As if to
emphasize his point, he told her about a recent murder of a young woman who had
gotten into a car with a man and was later found dead. It was a chilling account but his concern for
the prisoner felt genuine. The other
women chimed in offering encouragement, but also confronting her directly, as
only they could, about her denial and her self-pity.
This program has been paying off in more ways than one. Besides being cost effective, Herbert
believes its real value is in saving lost souls. He says, “Right now we know that 60% who have
entered our program are continuing in their recovery. People say, compare that to the success rate
you had before. That’s pretty difficult,
but probably there was little to no success rate- only a death rate, how long
are they going to live.”
I was told that it is not uncommon for women to turn down a
time-served sentence in favor of Judge Herbert’s 2-year program of
recovery. I can see why given the
success stories I heard. As Judge
Herbert once said in an interview, “We want women in our program to know they
are important and special.” He certainly
conveyed that to the women he interacted with in court the day I was there. One woman in the program expressed it this
way, “CATCH court is like my own personal church every week. It uplifts me. It makes me feel like I’m not alone. Just having a judge proud of me…I can’t say
enough good things about the CATCH court program.” Having observed it first hand, neither can I.
For more information about programs that support and work
with the CATCH program go to:
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