By Michelle Chen
As Capitol Hill backslides into dysfunction and bickering, (click here) the capital city is taking matters into its own hands to get work done: Washington, DC, might soon be the first US city to fully decriminalize sex work.
With a progressive bill to overhaul the current enforcement approach to sex work, DC is trying to lessen sex workers’ involvement with the criminal-justice system and respect their autonomy. The move comes on the heels of campaigns by community advocates who say that, to genuinely protect sex workers, authorities should start by simply keeping them out of jail.
The “Reducing Criminalization to Promote Public Safety and Health Amendment Act” would repeal criminal penalties for adults engaged in sex work, whether they are purchasing or selling sex, and for operating a sex work–related place of business—what the law deems a “place used for the purpose of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution.”...
The people of the USA need to remember exactly what kind of billionaire Donald Trump is; hotels and casinos. These activities are common place for his establishments.
First, legalize prostitution, then comes kiddy porn (after all they are only looking), then comes touching parlors of 17 year olds that are homeless and exploited by pimps anyway.
Wouldn't things in the USA be so much more civilized and decriminalized and safer for the public is all these 'icky' businesses were legit.
A right wing journalist, NOT THE LEFT, is calling for legalization of prostitution.
November 29, 2017
By S. E. Cupp
This past Saturday night, (click here) while most of us were still recovering from overdosing on turkey and family, a 38-year-old woman leaped to her death from the third floor of a Queens apartment building.
She had an audience, but it wasn’t family. She was a prostitute, working above a massage parlor when she agreed to perform a sex act for money with a man she thought was safe.
He was, in fact, an undercover police officer, and when his backup entered the apartment to arrest her, she fled out the window. Other police officers waiting outside the building watched as she fell onto the sidewalk below. She died at the hospital the next day, of severe head and body trauma.
Her life may have been a small and troubled one. But this was no way for it to end. And it makes me think that it’s time to legalize prostitution.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a conservative Republican woman. I hate everything about prostitution: how it exploits women, how it cheapens sex, and how often it can lead to violence. And it’s for all those reasons that I think it should now be legal.
It doesn’t need to take the tragic and totally unnecessary death of a young woman to see why. Efforts to combat prostitution and make it “safer” have failed....
By Colby Hamilton
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (click here) on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a defamation suit brought by billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson against the National Jewish Democratic Council for a 2012 online petition that stated Adelson personally approved of prostitution in his Asian casinos.
The Democratic organization created the petition to urge then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to return Adelson’s campaign donations. Adelson—a major GOP donor—was said to have “dirty,” “tainted” money from his Chinese operations, which supposedly were allowing prostitution at Adelson’s behest. The petition linked to a report from The Associated Press of a former executive in Adelson’s Chinese operations claiming in court papers that Adelson was aware and approved of prostitution at his operations in Macau.
In 2013, the appellate court upheld, in part, a previous dismissal of the defamation suit for failure to state a claim, as well as Nevada’s strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) statute designed to protect freedom of speech....
17 August 2017
Women held in local jails (click here) represent the fastest growing population of incarcerated people in the US, according to a new study. The researchers found that trauma, sexual violence and mental health issues were all closely wrapped up with the swelling numbers.
“While we started to see a decline in the incarceration and jailing of men, we haven’t seen a comparable kind of trend for women,” said Laurie Garduque, director of Justice Reform for the MacArthur Foundation, which co-published the report with the Vera Institute. Since 1970, the number of women in US jails has increased by 14 times, far outstripping the growth in the male prison population, even though in raw numbers there remain many more men locked up....
...Sexual assault is also a common thread for women who find themselves in the criminal justice system. Women represent just 13% of the jail population, but make up more than two-thirds of the victims of staff-on-inmate sexual victimization. Eighty-six percent of women in jails reported experiencing sexual violence at some point in their life, roughly four times the rate of women in the US at large....
By Allison Herrera
Robyn Allen stands in the prison yard at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, Oklahoma. Allen is one of about 1,200 prisoners, including one woman sentenced to death. Allen is serving a 20-year sentence for possession of 20 grams of methamphetamines.
Robyn Allen (click here) remembers the last time she saw her daughter. It was in an Oklahoma prison yard.
Allen, 52, hadn't seen her daughter, Cherise Greer, for two years when their paths crossed last summer at Mabel Bassett prison, the state's largest. Both were serving time for a 2013 methamphetamine conviction.
Greer was dressed in an orange jumpsuit and was being loaded into a van, headed to a minimum security prison in Oklahoma City. Greer and her mom weren't allowed to speak because their conviction stemmed from the same crime.
As the guard turned away, Allen called out, "I love you," to her daughter.
"She told me, 'I love you mom, please don't cry,'" Allen recalled as she wiped away tears.
At the time, Allen and her daughter were among more than 3,000 women serving time in the state. For over 25 years, Oklahoma has led the nation in the rate at which it sends women to prison. Roughly 151 of every 100,000 Oklahoma women are behind bars — twice the national average....
...Drugs and drug-related crimes, even simple possession, are some of the top reasons women enter the state's criminal justice system. And, they're staying longer. Stephens County, a mostly rural area where Allen is from, had the third-highest rate of women in prison. Allen is serving 20 years for possession of methamphetamines — two times longer than the state average....
These are the names of Oklahoma's private prisons, Cimarron in Cushing, OK; Davis in Holdenville, OK; Lawton in Lawtong, OK; Great Plains in Hinton, OK which is reported as vacant without stating why; the same is true for Diamondback, in Watonga, OK and North Fork at Sayre, OK.
Incarcerated women are a good income for Oklahoma.
November 29, 2017
Oklahoma City - Oklahoma’s prison director (click here) wants state lawmakers to triple the agency’s budget in spite of a state budget shortfall and the possibility of another shortfall next year.
Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh said Wednesday the agency is seeking $1.53 billion next year including $813 million for two new medium-security prisons, $107 million in repairs to existing prisons and $10 million for across-the-board raises.
Allbaugh says the request is more than $1 billion more than the agency’s current $485 million budget but “represents exactly what our needs are right now.”
Gov. Mary Fallin says the agency’s needs will be reviewed in the budget process. Earlier this month, Fallin vetoed much of a bill to close a $215 million hole in the current budget and says next year’s shortfall is estimated at $600 million.
It just seems so odd that the Right Wing is advocating for legalizing prostitution when they already profit from it. Human Trafficking is a huge focus now in law enforcement and state legislatures are making the definitions so broad it will catch innocent people in it's net.
November 29, 2017
By Justin Heinze
Two men forced six women (click here) into prostitution across southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey over the past three years, according to authorities.
Kenneth Crowell, 34, and Barry "Bear" Schiff, 50, are accused of running a human trafficking ring from 2014 until October of this year, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced. In Pennsylvania, the ring operated in Philadelphia and Montgomery County, in addition to Lancaster and York counties.
An investigation began when Pennsylvania state troopers found an advertisement for a prostitute on the website Backpage, according to authorities. Two undercover troopers arranged to meet the prostitute at the Cork Factory Hotel in Lancaster.
When police identified themselves to the victim, the woman told them she didn't feel safe, Shapiro said.
She went on to explain that Crowell and Schiff had recruited her while she was working at a gentleman's club in York. Schiff bragged about selling opioid pills and heroin to the women working for him in order to control them, she told investigators. He threatened her with a knife when she said she didn't like him buying and supplying heroin in the hotel room where she worked, the woman claimed....
As a little side note; remember Seattle, Washington where the minimum wage was hiked to $15.00 per hour. The economy is booming there. The economy has gotten so impressive it is attracting prostitution.
The social conscience regarding prostitution has become so pronounced in Washington State, the "Spokesman Review" (click here) out of Spokane published an article from 100 years ago about "Purity Squads."
It is my guess the women in Washington State are enjoying at least $15.00 per hour for their work, so legalizing prostitution is probably not a reality for them.
The Left does not own this problem. The Left finds solutions that work. We need to remove human trafficking from the USA and provide women and children with safe and sane lives.
Legalizing sex work will create more victims, not less. Poverty and the Working Poor are still front and center as a problem "The Left" needs to hold dear. Ask oneself, "What age does sex work require a retirement income?"
...Drugs and drug-related crimes, even simple possession, are some of the top reasons women enter the state's criminal justice system. And, they're staying longer. Stephens County, a mostly rural area where Allen is from, had the third-highest rate of women in prison. Allen is serving 20 years for possession of methamphetamines — two times longer than the state average....
These are the names of Oklahoma's private prisons, Cimarron in Cushing, OK; Davis in Holdenville, OK; Lawton in Lawtong, OK; Great Plains in Hinton, OK which is reported as vacant without stating why; the same is true for Diamondback, in Watonga, OK and North Fork at Sayre, OK.
Incarcerated women are a good income for Oklahoma.
November 29, 2017
Oklahoma City - Oklahoma’s prison director (click here) wants state lawmakers to triple the agency’s budget in spite of a state budget shortfall and the possibility of another shortfall next year.
Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh said Wednesday the agency is seeking $1.53 billion next year including $813 million for two new medium-security prisons, $107 million in repairs to existing prisons and $10 million for across-the-board raises.
Allbaugh says the request is more than $1 billion more than the agency’s current $485 million budget but “represents exactly what our needs are right now.”
Gov. Mary Fallin says the agency’s needs will be reviewed in the budget process. Earlier this month, Fallin vetoed much of a bill to close a $215 million hole in the current budget and says next year’s shortfall is estimated at $600 million.
It just seems so odd that the Right Wing is advocating for legalizing prostitution when they already profit from it. Human Trafficking is a huge focus now in law enforcement and state legislatures are making the definitions so broad it will catch innocent people in it's net.
November 29, 2017
By Justin Heinze
Two men forced six women (click here) into prostitution across southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey over the past three years, according to authorities.
Kenneth Crowell, 34, and Barry "Bear" Schiff, 50, are accused of running a human trafficking ring from 2014 until October of this year, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced. In Pennsylvania, the ring operated in Philadelphia and Montgomery County, in addition to Lancaster and York counties.
An investigation began when Pennsylvania state troopers found an advertisement for a prostitute on the website Backpage, according to authorities. Two undercover troopers arranged to meet the prostitute at the Cork Factory Hotel in Lancaster.
When police identified themselves to the victim, the woman told them she didn't feel safe, Shapiro said.
She went on to explain that Crowell and Schiff had recruited her while she was working at a gentleman's club in York. Schiff bragged about selling opioid pills and heroin to the women working for him in order to control them, she told investigators. He threatened her with a knife when she said she didn't like him buying and supplying heroin in the hotel room where she worked, the woman claimed....
As a little side note; remember Seattle, Washington where the minimum wage was hiked to $15.00 per hour. The economy is booming there. The economy has gotten so impressive it is attracting prostitution.
The social conscience regarding prostitution has become so pronounced in Washington State, the "Spokesman Review" (click here) out of Spokane published an article from 100 years ago about "Purity Squads."
It is my guess the women in Washington State are enjoying at least $15.00 per hour for their work, so legalizing prostitution is probably not a reality for them.
The Left does not own this problem. The Left finds solutions that work. We need to remove human trafficking from the USA and provide women and children with safe and sane lives.
Legalizing sex work will create more victims, not less. Poverty and the Working Poor are still front and center as a problem "The Left" needs to hold dear. Ask oneself, "What age does sex work require a retirement income?"
