Pittsburgh City Council member to introduce bill reducing prostitution to finable offense
Some Pittsburgh City Council members want to reduce the penalties for sex work from jail time to a fine.
It's been called the world's oldest profession. And for time immemorial, police have treated it as a crime punishable by jail, a criminal record and stigma. But advocates for sex workers say prostitution is a consensual act that merits only a summons and a fine.
"We don't believe that it's helpful to the community or the individual to criminalize sex work at the level of jail time or penalties," said Leigh Kelsey of Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.
Proposed bill reduces prostitution to finable offense
Under the ordinance to be introduced on Tuesday by Councilmember Barb Warwick, prostitution would remain a crime in Pittsburgh, but reduce it from a misdemeanor with potential jail time to a finable offense.
The legislation says the law disproportionately penalizes women in troubled circumstances, and police should focus instead on the people who traffic them and the people who use their services.
Former sex worker Theresa Nightengale, the head of the Pittsburgh Coalition for Safer Sex Work, says the workers need help, not jail, and reducing those penalties gives them a better chance at a fresh start.
"This is for someone who is having a hard time in their life and doing this survival sex work or someone who is doing this to make money when they're younger or in different phases of their life," Nightengale said. "I just don't want to have them charged with a serious crime, a penalty that makes it so that they potentially can't leave the industry."
The bill is co-sponsored by Councilmembers R. Daniel Lavelle, Erika Strassburger and Deb Gross. But other members, including Anthony Coghill, say they have not yet seen it and are concerned that reducing the penalties might encourage prostitution in the city, which police say is most prevalent at massage parlors, some hotels and a section of the North Side.
But supporters of the legislation like Pittsburgh Action Against Rape says mostly women are driven to sex work by difficult life circumstances.
Gainey voices support for bill
In a statement to KDKA, Gainey said the proposal is "consistent with a public health-oriented approach to addressing low-level, non-violent offenses, providing law enforcement with a diversion-based option to use when conditions warrant it."
"This will help to remove the fear of incarceration that often prevents sex workers from availing themselves of human services or police assistance when needed," he added.
He said he asked the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department and Pittsburgh Bureau of Police to review the proposed ordinance "to ensure that it would align in practice with State law and the procedures for police accreditation."
Proponents argue that sex work is dangerous work and reducing the penalties and stigma will make it easier for sex workers to go to the police when they are being trafficked or abused.
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