Texas rethinks law making repeat prostitution a felony

[Draggingtree]

Austin American Statesman:

 

Texas rethinks law making repeat prostitution a felony

By Mike Ward

mward@statesman.com

Updated: 8:25 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012

Published: 9:59 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012

 

DAYTON — Busted 32 times in 17 years for prostitution in Austin and other places, Beatryce Hall's rap sheet reads like a frequent-flier ticket for Texas prisons: 11 times in 11 years.

Many of those trips were courtesy of a 2001 Texas law that allowed prosecutors to charge prostitutes with a felony and send them to a state lockup after three misdemeanor prostitution convictions. The law was designed to clear up chronic problems with truck-stop and street hookers in Dallas.

But now, with more than 350 prostitutes — most from Houston and Dallas — occupying bunks in the state prison system, and dozens more serving time for drug and theft charges related to the sex trade, questions are being raised about whether the enhanced criminal charge is a waste of money. For about one-fourth the cost, such nonviolent, low-level criminals could be rehabilitated in community-based programs aimed at curing their addictions to alcohol and drugs.

At a time when state officials are looking to save money wherever they can and be smarter on crime, the issue is expected to be on the agenda when the Legislature convenes again in January — another example of Texas' push for additional treatment and rehabilitation programs that began read more

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/texas-rethinks-law-making-repeat-prostitution-a-felony-2442512.html