PVCC Puma Press: March 2003

"I learned at a young age that love equals money. My father gave me money; I gave him a smile."

— Former Phoenix Prostitute

In a modest, undisclosed building office known as Dignity Diversion in Downtown Phoenix, Cathy remembers her first notion of prostitution. An act, she says, we all learn and use to some degree. A self-described wayward child, Cathy talks about life growing up in an alcoholic home, and the circumstances that led her to the streets by age 34, performing sexual acts for money. "I believed the lies: 'it's just a job' and 'I'm my own boss,'" she says. "But, I never felt as alone as when on the streets. I had guns held to my head." I felt powerless, she adds.

Cathy can talk openly about her past, because she is three years into recovery. Now a case worker with the Dignity Diversion program, she pauses before answering where she would be if not for the Dignity Diversion program. They say it goes first jail, then institutions, then death. "I'd already done jail and institutions, " she says.

The Dignity Diversion program, funded by the City of Phoenix through a Catholic Social Services grant, helps women and men get off the streets and out of prostitution.

Christine Herzog, M. Ed., program coordinator says Dignity Diversion wants to shut the revolving door on prostitution arrests.

"The city of Phoenix arrests 1,400 prostitutes every year, 50 percent re-offend," Herzog says.

She says that in an effort to clean up the city, the courts enforce tough prostitution laws. In the city of Phoenix, first-time prostitution offenders receive a mandatory 15 days in jail, or they can sign a plea agreement. A second offense requires 30 days in jail; a third offense equals 90 days and a fourth offense earns a mandatory 180 days. Each time arrested, the offender is offered the plea. Agreeing to a plea, the women and men admit guilt, and then must contact Dignity Diversion within five days. If they sign a plea and don't show up, the courts issue an arrest warrant.

Once in the Dignity Diversion program, each prostitute is assigned a case worker. The case worker evaluates the prostitute's background and goals, and then develops a recovery plan. Currently, Dignity Diversion employs two case workers, who together supervise 130 prostitutes.

The prostitution offenders must attend a 36 hour, one week group program addressing issues such as understanding their past, setting boundaries and building confidence. They also talk about stress, addiction and relapse. "They have tough exteriors, but, really, they are not sure of themselves." says Herzog.

Next, if the women and men are not working a "legal" job or attending school, they must attend a minimum of six life skills meetings, one per week. If they finish the criteria within six months, the offense is erased from their record, and they are given a positive dismissal.

Since opening in 2001, the Dignity Diversion program boasts 300 positive dismissals, with only 6 relapses. Herzog says these statistics support reform. However, for the men and women caught in the cycle of prostitution, it's not about statistics. It's about family, hope, survival.

Barbara, 44, a case worker and former prostitute, says meeting people through Dignity Diversion who understood her and could relate to her experience helped her turn her life around. Now, four years in to recovery, she says "what I did is not who I am."

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Illustration by Megan Jonas
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Barbara graduated from Phoenix College in May 2002. She has a 4.0 GPA at NAU, and will graduate in December with a B.A. in Liberal Studies. She plans to continue her education in a master's program for educational leadership, hoping to eventually develop more programs like Dignity Diversion.

"I used to believe my past was a liability§now I see it as an asset," she says. "Being a survivor allows me to be a success."

Cathy is earning her chemical dependency certificate, and now teaches a class at Estrella prison, which she once attended as an inmate.

Both Barbara and Cathy found acceptance in the Dignity Diversion program, rather than a "stop it," slap on the wrist approach, says Herzog.

"Something happened in their lives," says Herzog. "[Dignity Diversion] is here to help them find it."

Working with Dignity Diversion since its inception, Herzog has learned to recognize the life patterns of men and women in prostitution: Sexual abuse, usually rape or incest, begins around age 14. Drug or alcohol abuse typically follows as an attempt to hide the pain. Then the women start working in massage parlors or exotic dancing, which are legal§but, become training grounds for prostitution.

Cathy was raped at 14. The scars she kept weren't from the rape but from her father's reaction upon learning she wasn't a virgin prior to the rape.

"He called me a slut and said, 'you're not my daughter,'" she says.

Intimacy problems resulted, and Cathy became an alcoholic and addict. She continued her downward spiral, ending up on the street using heroin.

Barbara grew up in an upper middle-class family. When she was 16, Barbara snorted cocaine and got drunk. "An older man I was with told me 'if you come out and take your top off, I know a guy that will give you money,'" she says.

But, it was never enough. Then it turned into sexual favors, she says. Afterward, she felt dirty, and that's when she crossed the boundary; she got caught in the cycle and couldn't get back. "Once I did it, I was in," she says.

Barbara subsequently worked as an escort, massage therapist, then as a street prostitute. She started using heroine when cocaine wasn't enough. Finally, Barbara moved to Arizona from Michigan thinking that would help her to reform. It only took her four months to start working again.

She says it's because she didn't heal the emotional experiences that prompted the drug use and prostitution. The guilt, shame, isolation and fear kept her in the cycle.

"Women don't have the choice people think they have," says Herzog. "Some just want to support their families, or need some extra money, and they just do this one thing."

The "one thing" leads in to more, she says. They get caught in the cycle, are so down, they don't see a way up or out; people don't understand that women and men do not choose prostitution.

She sees no forgiveness in society. It's very difficult to overcome the guilt and shame. And they carry these issues and stigma with them. "Prostitutes are a forgotten population, the throw aways," says Herzog.

But, she says something is wrong when over 50 percent of arrested prostitutes re-offend. She says Dignity Diversion will continue to address the issues. The Dignity Diversion program offers employment and housing referrals for women and men changing their lives. They also have a program reaching into the prison system. In addition, a residential program, the Dignity House, houses up to five women for a one-year commitment.

The city of Phoenix is the only city in Arizona with a program helping prostitution. But, Herzog says, other cities are looking. "This is just the beginning."