LOCAL PROSTITUTE WAS TRAPPED IN A LIFESTYLE OF DRUG ADDICTION

NEWPORT NEWS -- Numb from the drugs that ran through her petite body,
Vanessa Rickerson returned to the streets after a stranger raped her.

She didn't know his name -- he was anonymous just like all the other
men Rickerson met as a prostitute.

"You still go back and do it because you want that drug," recalls
39-year-old Rickerson, who needed the money to feed a heroin habit
that wouldn't loosen its grip on her.

Then another man raped her. This one hit her to get what he wanted.
She struggled to break the cycle of prostitution and drug addiction.
It was a lifestyle that ended with Rickerson being convicted twice for
prostitution. Talking from a tiny jail interview room, Rickerson
recounted how she fell into this lifestyle.

The lure of money Rickerson was born in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. Her
mother was a heroin addict and her father was an alcoholic.

At 13, she took her first sip of alcohol. Three years later she was
using cocaine and heroin.

In 1995 she moved to Newport News, where a couple of her friends
lived, and she began working as a stripper and for an adult escort
service.

She became a prostitute in 1997 at age 27. Rickerson was walking along
Jefferson Avenue on her way to the store when a man approached her.

"He asked me if I wanted to make $60 real quick," she recalled. "It
took 10 minutes. I was hooked."

She realized she could earn more money as a prostitute than as an
adult escort.

"Most of the time I tried to be high so I didn't think about it," she
said, referring to her sexual encounters.

Rickerson said most clients were men who had had a rough day at work,
were lonely or whose wives were pregnant. She eventually built a
clientele and didn't have to walk the streets. Her clients knew where
to find her.

"It really is a degrading life. It's insulting. It's demeaning. But as
an addict, we do what we have to do."

She used the money to buy drugs and for a $45 motel
room.

"When you have a drug addiction, it's easier to go out and get your
money now, instead of waiting all week for a paycheck," Rickerson
said. Her services started at $40.

She says at the time her prices were a little higher than other
working girls.

"I thought I had higher expectations for myself," she said. "But it
didn't matter because I was still out there selling my body."

Life after prostitution Rickerson spent 15 days in jail on her
prostitution convictions. She's currently in the Newport News Jail on
drug convictions. Rickerson is a part of the jail's Inner Reflections
program, which provides drug counseling. She faces three years in
prison, with a sentencing scheduled for February.

"I just want another chance at life," said Rickerson, who wants the
state to provide more drug treatment programs for recovering addicts.
"This whole prostitution, drug thing and street life ain't a game."

Rickerson also wants to be accepted in the city's Drug Court program,
which helps recovering addicts. "I don't deserve three years," she
said. "I'm an addict. I just want a chance."

Rickerson says the Newport News Police Department's new effort to
crack down on prostitution -- called a "mapping program" that would
give police more power to penalize prostitutes and their clients --
will not be effective.

"Prostitution is the oldest way to make money in the book," she said.
"They can never stop it. They're just going to find other ways."

Despite her will to stay clean and off the street, she has her
doubts.

"I can't say I'll never be out there again. I can't say I'm not gonna
pick up or use tomorrow. I live for today."