TURNING TRICKS WAY FOR PROSTITUTES TO GET TO NEXT DRUG FIX

Prostitution isn't something many people would like to acknowledge exists
in Owensboro. It's much easier to fix blinders on the way to ball practice,
the grocery store or the mall and pretend that women and men don't sell
their bodies to support a drug addiction that grips them so tightly they
don't care about disease or prosecution.

It's more convenient to sit down to a full course meal without thinking
that there are parents in Owensboro who turn tricks to feed their children
or pay their bills.

But there are.

"People need to realize that this kind of stuff is happening here," said
Jackie, a former prostitute who did not want to be identified. "Jackie" is
an alias she used on the street. "You'd be real surprised at who will pick
you up. You'd be real surprised. A lot of times they was married men."

Jackie, 39, started prostituting herself when she was 20, after a childhood
of sexual and verbal abuse. By the time she became an adult, the only way
she knew to experience what she thought was love from a man was to sell her
body.

But what started out as a search for affection turned into a way to support
her addiction to crack cocaine, which she started using when she was 16.
One fix and she was hooked.

"That's how I always dealt with pain," Jackie said. "I didn't know any
other way."

That led her to walking the streets, from sunup to sundown, watching for
men who circled the block several times, a cue for her to approach the
vehicle. Often she would approach them at a stop sign and ask them if they
wanted to "have fun," she said.

"I would go for days and weeks without eating," said Jackie, whose weight
at one point dropped to 98 pounds. "I didn't care about eating. Just
walking the streets. I knew there was always somebody out there who would
stop somewhere.

"That was my work. Every day, all day long. I didn't take good care of
myself at all, hygiene wise and everything else."

Needs overtake health concerns

Hollywood depicts prostitutes as shapely women baring flesh who stand on
the street corner hawking their services. But in Owensboro, the behavior
often is much more clandestine, and the prostitutes come in all shapes,
sizes, colors and ages, health and law enforcement officials say.

It occurs in alleys and homes, with prostitutes knocking door-to-door in
neighborhoods where children scamper from school buses, residents who live
in those areas say. Or it can occur when prostitutes visit drug dealers and
trade the only thing they have that's valuable -- their bodies -- to
support their habit.

Jackie's habit cost her from $300 to $400 a day. During one two-day period,
she smoked away $1,000. Sometimes she got as much as $50 or $100 for her
services to finance her addiction.

The only common theme prostitutes share is an immediate need, a need for
drugs or alcohol or even for food or shelter, said Nick Sauer, program
administrator for the Owensboro Area HIV-AIDS Task Force.

Representatives from the task force visit what Sauer calls public sex
environments to pass out condoms and educate prostitutes and others about
the dangers of having unprotected sex. Many are receptive to the
information. Some aren't, he said.

"Most people think prostitution is performing sex for money," said Sauer,
who has seen prostitutes ranging in age from 12 to 60. "But prostitution is
performing sex for anything. If our community would be more considerate as
to why we may have prostitution and take care of the needs that those
people may have, then we would eliminate some of the prostitution."

For those who will listen, Sauer urges them to be tested for HIV infection
and other sexually transmitted diseases. In 1998, the state performed a
total 617 HIV tests on prostitutes, of which 15 tested positive. In 2000,
out of 456 prostitutes tested, seven tested positive, he said.

But those numbers represent only those people requesting tests, so the
actual numbers could be skewed. Anyone with multiple sex partners should be
tested every six months for HIV, Sauer said. Prostitutes should be tested
monthly.

Other sexually transmitted diseases, including chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes
and human papilloma virus, or HPV, are a concern as well, said Linda Dant,
coordinator at the McAuley Clinic, a free health clinic at the Daniel
Pitino Shelter on Walnut Street. Some prostitutes visit the clinic after
kicking their drug or alcohol addiction. They start to think about their
health then. But until they are sober, they don't worry about risky
behavior. They will perform sexual favors without protection, sometimes
thinking oral or anal sex is less risky, Dant said.

"Most of the time, no, they don't have the man use a condom, because when
they are looking for that fix, that's all they care about," she said.

HPV, a precursor to cervical cancer, can be transmitted even with
protection, Dant said.

Most of the time, Jackie didn't use protection while performing any type of
sex act that her client requested. The drug drove her to dismiss any
thought about her health. She just didn't care, she said.

"We aren't bad people," she said. "We just got an addiction."

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the Owensboro
area, accounting for 75 percent of all cases, said Linda Foley,
epidemiologist at the Green River District Health Department. Last year,
there were 556 cases of chlamydia diagnosed at the health departments in
the seven-county Green River district, which consists of Daviess, Hancock,
Ohio, McLean, Henderson, Webster and Union counties.

That includes 225 in Daviess; 22 in Ohio; fewer than five in Hancock; and
14 in McLean. But that's not an accurate reflection of a how many people
are actually infected, she said, because many cases go unreported.

Turning point

"Most of the women are real ashamed of the activity," Dant said. "It's not
something they are proud of at all. It's something they feel is a necessity
because of the need for the drug. It's not a behavior that they are really
willing to talk about. They certainly don't want their family to know about
it. Some of these women have children."

Jackie has five children, ranging in age from 3 to 20. Her turning point
came at the first of this year when she begged God to take her life. She
was tired of trading her body for drugs, often with her children in tow.
And she knew that children will mimic the same behavior they see in their
parents.

She went into rehabilitation and now attends counseling and has a full-time
job. She's been clean for four months.

"I got tired of living that lifestyle," she said. "I knew my body was worth
more than that. I knew if I didn't stop, my body would be found in a ditch.
It's nothing but misery."