Posted on 03/28/2005 4:59:02 PM PST by rhema
Seeing the same faces shuffle through the system on prostitution charges, the undercover vice detective began to collect them.
He placed arrest photo after photo of each woman in sequence, so someone could study the first innocuous picture, skim through the middle and be riveted on the last: the one that shows the ravages of living on the street, where eyes tell tales of pain and despair, anger and desperation.
"It's so drastic, and it can be so fast," the undercover officer said of the downward spirals he's seen in six years of working prostitution cases, "and it's all because they don't care.
"Well," he said, "I care."
He placed the photos in a black binder, and on the first page he typed, "Look at this and ask yourself if prostitution is really a victimless crime."
His goal, he said, was for the book to be used as an educational tool, a deterrent.
He got his wish.
Now, a Denver county judge keeps a copy in his courtroom to show first offenders as he oversees a new jail-diversion program for prostitutes. The proposal for that program was written in part by a Denver official who was stunned by the photos.
A City Council member, sickened after viewing the pages, is renewing her efforts to fund a treatment program for prostitutes in Denver.
And police officers use the book in training to raise the awareness of those who believe that prostitution is only about crime.
"There's no way you can look at those photos," the undercover detective, whom department officials asked not to be identified, told The Denver Post, "and not see the victimization involved."
Through the montage of arrest photos of the prostitutes, he said, he has tried to capture their struggles.
"They're victims and they're defendants and they're perpetrators and they're drug addicts and they're sociopaths - all rolled into one," said Denver County Judge John Marcucci.
Last month, Marcucci began overseeing Project Chrysalis, a new drug court program funded by the Department of Justice designed solely as a jail diversion program for prostitutes with multiple arrests.
In his courtroom, sentences for prostitutes vary according to the defendant's criminal history and whether they want to participate in any drug rehabilitation programs.
A first offense is typically a fine and up to 10 days in jail. The second offense is 30 to 60 days in jail, and by the third offense, a prostitution charge will garner 90 days to a year behind bars.
Many women will do the time, only to reappear in court on a new charge shortly after their release, police say. The revolving door is attributed to drug or alcohol addiction.
When critics of the justice system tell him to toughen his sentences on prostitutes, Marcucci said, "I show them the book. Then they say, 'Oh, my God, we have to get these women some help."'
Upon first seeing the collection about six months ago, Denver City Councilwoman Carol Boigon said she felt "nauseous and sick and weepy. It takes your breath away."
Boigon noted that the first arrest photos look like anyone's high school child, but it quickly goes downhill from there.
"They go from fresh-faced and sweet to vacant and bruised," she said.
Boigon, who is developing a residential treatment center for prostitutes funded without city tax dollars, believes they are both victims and criminals.
"You're dealing with people who became outlaws because they were victimized." she said. "Add to that the layers of drug abuse and addiction, and jail is not going to change their behavior."
Police officials say the effects of prostitution are far-reaching. Last year, Denver police made 538 prostitution arrests.
"The impact is untold on businesses and neighborhoods," said Denver police division chief Dave Fisher.
As far as the prostitutes themselves, Fisher said, "So many of these women are beaten, raped and robbed. The narrow-minded person might see only this woman selling her body, but what they don't see is the lifestyle that is associated with that."
And that lifestyle, the undercover vice detective said, is one of addiction and survival.
"It puts them in a place they don't want to be," he said.
Since he began the collection of photos in 2003, he said, it remains a work in progress, and one that he hopes will continue to stir compassion.
"Everybody's got their demons," he said. "So you don't look down on somebody for what they have as a demon in their life."
COURTNEY SEALE, 28 | Seale has more than 60 arrests for larceny, drugs, assault and prostitution. The third photo shows her jaw, broken in a beating, wired shut. She currently has a warrant out for her arrest in Washington. She couldn’t be reached for this story.
The important thing is prostitution and drugs. Not that I am condoning prostitution, but I bet Heidi Fleiss's girls didn't look like that.
This isn't news to conservatives. In fact, it's "told-ya-so" material to show your liberal pals who think every vice is harmless and should be legal.
This is like George Felos saying 'people look beautiful' after 12 days without food or water.
This doesn't mean, that taking drugs, alcohol, streetwalking is harmless. People hurt themselves with these things as they hurt themselves in many other ways. Depending on your philosophy, people are victims or perpetrators of their addictions.
The gal pictured is a tweeker
yeah, meth. Keep anyone you care about the hell away from crystal meth.
"Whatcha ya gonna believe-- your ideology or your lyin' eyes?"
I'm counting the seconds ticking before our own "Pot-is-Awesome!" crowd chimes in with their 2 cents. I'm sure it was "the system" that hurt these women, and if they only used drugs in moderation they'd be OK....
I'm sure you won't have to wait long. The libertarian loonies will be along to stink up the thread soon.
I second the motion and add an "Amen".
It's the hard drugs not the prostituion thats destroying these women. You have to weigh things like this against the half a million non violent pot users languishing and being corrupted in jail draining tax payers dollars.
I think the Libertarian views weigh serious consideration.
After all, is the government's policy STOPPING these women from doing drugs and destroying their lives? Clearly the war on drugs has been an abject failure. I'm ready to try something new.
Liberty often has profoundly good results that are often opposite the opinions of it's detractors.
The fact is, the ones who work the chicken ranches in Nevada are in good shape, not strung out, not diseased and do pretty well for themselves. If it was regulated you wouldn't see a lot of these problems. Of course, even if every state had a district like the county in NV, you would still see illegal acts of prostitution because you will always have people willing to sell it and others willing to buy, and all the moralizing in the world won't change that.
If you all want to waste your tax money prosecuting this stuff, have fun. I wish I could get a refund on mine because it's as big a waste as the welfare state. Neverending demand, neverending supply and you will never see the penalties become unduly harsh because the people passing the legislation also enjoy the vice itself.
All this applies to the drug war as well, another never ending, never won moralistic crusade with a large set of corrupt lobbyists and civil servants who depend on the crusade for their livlihood.
I'm sure the pictures are sad. These doxies want to destroy themselves, it's their business, not mine.
It wasn't the system, it was the meth. We should have made meth illegal so that this wouldn't have happened to her. Maybe we should make prostitution illegal too.
Agreed! It is stupid to give people hard jail time for small amounts of weed. Completely non-productive!!! They should make weed offenders mow people's laws. :)
"mow people's laws" = mow peoples LAWNS.
There's a world of difference between cannabis and street drugs like meth, crack and smack. About as much difference as between beer and Sterno.
Pot isn't terribly good for you, but all by itself it won't drive you into the gutter.
" Not that I am condoning prostitution, but I bet Heidi Fleiss's girls didn't look like that."
Maybe not the first 6 months of working for her....................BUT WHAT DO YOU &#@^$** THINK THEY LOOK LIKE NOW!!!!????
L8R
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