Offenders’ Prostitution Program (John's School)
Community Court is a Restorative Justice pilot project in St. Paul. This is a unique kind of court that gives people an opportunity they would not have in a regular courtroom. The opportunity is to give back to the community they have taken from through their various crimes.
Prostitution has a serious impact on our community. It is one of the more serious crimes looked at in community court. It affects the neighborhood and the people that live in it. Children and wives are being solicited on their way to the store or waiting for a bus, children are playing with used condoms and are watching this illicit activity, and the monetary value of homes in the community decreases when prostitution is present. Because of the deep impact prostitution has on the community, Community Court and Breaking Free came up with an excellent strategy to re-educate the offender (men who solicit women). This is The Offenders’ Prostitution Program or "John's School" .
In January of 1999, the implementation of the Ramsey County District Community Court was put in place. In cooperation with Judge Lawrence Cohen, Sue Alliegro the District Court Administrator, the Second Judicial District and other members of the bench, the Saint Paul City Attorney, the Ramsey County Public Defender, Ramsey County Community Corrections, the Frog Town Community Group, the Saint Paul Police and Breaking Free, this innovative project became a reality.
Breaking Free monitored the community court calendar and assessed the need to provide expanded services for women involved in this arm of the Criminal Justice system. Offering services, referrals, housing and support for those that voluntarily agreed to participate. Breaking Free also agreed to be a placement for women ordered to perform Community Service when appropriate.
Under a grant from the (NIJ) National Institute of Justice, Breaking Free was one of six programs in the country that was given the opportunity to form a committee composed of community leaders. Members of the committee attended an intensive training (sponsored by SAGE) that was held in San Francisco, California in February of 1999. After returning from the training, the inception and development of a program to provide education as well as a form of consequences for “Johns” was put in place.
The “John School” is a response to the on-going community concern in the Frog Town and Aurora St. Anthony area where the highest level of prostitution/sex-trafficking occurs in the City of Saint Paul. In the past there was a pattern of response to the problem of prostitution by putting the prostituted women and girls in jail and allowing the “John” to only pay a fine. This did not deter the activity and gave no positives results. This problem has had a negative impact on the neighborhood, the community as a whole, and the women involved in prostitution. It also has proved to be costly to the County in terms of returning women over and over to jail where there is no response to their issues while seeing “Johns” return to the same behavior with little to no consequence. When “Johns” solicit women at all hours of the night and day they disrupt families and individuals safely living or even visiting in the neighborhood. They have created a public safety concern, escalated criminal behavior, and have eroded the neighborhood they visit which they typically themselves usually do not reside in. Breaking Free chose to implement a program that would target the offender to educate and attempt to sensitize them to the social, community and human consequences of their behavior. The Offenders Prostitution Program (“John School”) began in July of 1999.
The “John School” has been ordered as a Community Court ordered sanction in addition to paying court fee’s and fines for soliciting prostitution. The school consists of a seven-hour educational program in which the City Attorney, police department, women who are survivors of prostitution, public health, and community members provide a series of educational components to the class. There is quite a bit of discussion about the reality of prostitution and how the participants’ behavior is affecting the women and girls they purchase, their families, and our communities. Confidential rapid HIV testing is also provided on site. The results of the tests are given at the end of the day.
A pre-test and a post-test have been developed and given to participants. These tests have proven attitude change among the participants. We have also implemented an evaluation at the end of each session to reveal data that has assisted Breaking Free in assessing the impact on the participants approaching this problem from an educational position.
