DON'T CHANGE THE SEX-TRADE LAW, JUST MAKE IT WORK BETTER FOR THE WOMEN

After 30 years policing, the last three as the inspector in charge of the
Downtown Eastside, I have concluded that the tragic circumstances of street
prostitutes can only be improved if we use existing laws more effectively.

The hallmark of sex trade work is isolation: Prostitutes are isolated from
mainstream society by social stigma, addiction, poverty, pimps and
organized crime.

Although prostitution is not illegal, the Criminal Code prohibits
communication for the purposes of prostitution. This law gives police
reason to identify, investigate and ultimately protect sex workers.

If prostitution is completely legalized, the unintended consequence will be
the elimination of police intervention in the lives of these marginalized
citizens, who truly need protection.

Street-level sex workers often become victims of drug addiction and
violence. Their activities have a negative impact on communities where
noise, discarded condoms and needles, increased traffic and verbal
harassment of residents create street disorder. Legalization or
decriminalization will not solve these problems for neighbourhoods, nor
will it make the lives of sex trade workers safer.

If the current situation of sex trade workers' lives and their impact on
communities is unacceptable and the proposals to decriminalize or legalize
prostitution will have unintended negative outcomes, what is the answer?

I believe that our society has only one morally and legally defensible
option: Get street workers out of the sex trade.

We must use our legal system to accomplish this, basing the solution on the
B.C. Mental Health Act, which allows the police to take a mentally ill
person into custody and deliver him to a medical facility. The spirit of
this law is not punitive; its intent is to get an individual into secure
treatment to protect both himself and society.

If this attitude were applied to the prostitution sections of the Criminal
Code, courts could sentence an addicted sex worker to drug treatment,
counselling and job training.

If the law was used in this way, sex workers could be extricated from
dangerous streets and given the stability, education and job skills needed
to function in society.

I believe existing advocacy groups would be a natural ally of the legal
system, providing support for sex workers as ordered by the courts.

The police would maintain their enforcement role but would serve as
gatekeepers, directing sex workers out of their marginalized existence on
the street.

Judges would then be able to order these women into rehabilitation options
managed by advocacy groups.

Society shouldn't change or eradicate existing laws on prostitution, but
use them to offer sex workers the services needed to get off the street and
on with their lives.

Rather than removing all legal sanctions against the sex trade, we need to
see the possibilities for positive change inherent in our existing laws.