REPORT DONE ON HOW SEX WORKERS' RIGHTS ADVOCATES GET HARASSED, ATTACKED, ETC. - IT'S ABOUT TIME!

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/first-global-report-sex-worker-rights-defenders-risk

ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING, DIVERSION, EARLY RELEASE & RE-ENTRY PROGRAMS

If you are currently incarcerated on a prostitution charge, then we may be able to help you get out of jail and into a program of some kind - whether that program be a drug treatment program, mental health treatment, or one that specializes in helping sex workers. So far, each person who has asked us to help them get released from jail and into another program, or even "house arrest", we've been able to do this. The court has always been receptive of sending someone on a prostitution conviction into some kind of "treatment" or even home so they can be with their children, as long as SWA is overseeing things. This may include a once a week phone meeting. Every case is different. So we may be able to help you get out of jail early. If you're in jail, and don't have anywhere to go upon release but maybe back to a pimp, and if you don't want to do that, we can assist you with re-entry support. Each person we've helped to get into re-entry, we've had someone from SWA meet them upon release at the door of the jail, take you either to an apartment we've arranged for you, or maybe to another half-way house, or even treatment if that's what you want to do. We have arranged jobs and/or work/study programs so you can start making money right away. If you have children, we can help you with that as well so you don't lose your kids. So we can help you with re-entry. If you have been arrested for a prostitution charge, contact us immediately. If you have a public defender, have them contact us immediately, and give them consent to speak to us. In each case so far where we've talked to the judge on your behalf, and shown them our proven statistics on how effective our program is with aiding you in quitting sex work, we've been able to get the court to suspend sentence until you've completed a certain number of meetings with us, or maybe worked off some community service hours. We've even had some courts deliver the person out of handcuffs in the court room right into our custody. This means local SWA members as we have members all over the USA who wish to remain "anonymous", but they work through SWA so that they can protect their new lives while helping you avoid jail - because jail doesn't help anyone. Especially during Covid. During Covid, the courts SHOULD be using us so that you don't go to jail. That really doesn't help them stop the spread of this disease. As long as you don't have a violent charge of some kind, there should be no problem with getting you court ordered into our program instead of jail, and then after having spent a certain amount of time with us, we've been able to have the court completely expunge (clear) your record so you don't have any charges showing up on your name when you're doing future job hunting. If enough people have been arrested on a prostitution charge, the court may allow us to set up a diversion program. This just means you attend phone meetings of www.sexworkersanonymous.net, which is a group of ex-sex workers, which are only about 90 minutes long. If you have community service or even restitution to work off, we can ususally get the court to accept you working those hours of with us. We then have you doing outreach into your local community, or even on the phone long distance if you have reasons you don't want to do local outreach, and after we verify these hours, we give you a letter to give the court. This can help you avoid having to pay off fees in cash as many courts will let you work those off with community service. As you know, avoiding jail when arrested for prostitution means you can keep your home, your kids, possibly even your marriage. Since we do not charge you for any of this support, you don't have to worry about raising any cash to get help from us. Just give us a call or email with your situation, show us your court papers so we know what the court wants for you, and we can help you. The last big case we had handed to us was a woman who ran a legal escort service. The court charged her with a bunch of things even though she was licensed and had acted legally. These were felony charges which she was able to avoid prison time over simply by doing outreach for www.sexworkersanonymous.net So call us or shoot us an email to officialsexworkersanonymous@gmail.com and let's see how we can help you. If you have parents who don't know what to do about the situation, we have booklets we can give them as well which will help them know how best to provide you with support during this time.

COVID RELIEF

If you're wanting to stop any form of sex work because you're afraid of HIV/AIDS, then we have sponsors who have offered to give salaries, which are grants so you don't have to pay them back, of $1000 a week, sometimes more, to do outreach into the community to get more COVID information, education, testing, etc., back into the community. You do not have to make any promise to "quit". An alcoholic can't "promise to quit" as sobriety is "just for today". So if you have a desire to stop sex work now, for Covid or whatever your reasons are, then we can arrange to get you a salary/sponsorship that will pay you a starting point of $1000 a week to do outreach back into the community. This is how we got many out of sex work during the HIV/AIDS crisis - we know you don't have a big savings account or retirement plan, so you need to make money, and make money now. One time grants for $200 which some sex worker groups are offering, aren't going to cut it. Nor are we going to make you "prove" you were a sex worker, which in the USA is insane and a violation of your 5th amendment constitutional right to not incriminate yourself. So we do not make these grants dependent upon you handing over basically a "confession" of illegal activity, which the prosecutor can then take up to two years to issue a warrant out for your arrest, to obtain this grant. All you need to do is show us your willingness to do outreach to other sex workers, and get them Covid education and testing, and we can get you started on this grant. If at that time, you choose to get help from the vocational rehabilitation office, where they give you job training, scholarships, etc., we can get you also assistance for job training so you don't have to go back to sex work if you don't want to. We take no position either way. It's your choice if you want to do sex work or not. We are just here to help you if you choose to exit with support and resources. We say this because it's very common for your "friends" to suddenly abandon you the second you even talk about quitting. It's like the alcoholic who starts to get sober, and then his friends feel like "you're no fun" and suddenly they're without friends. We are here for you as a person, and your choices are up to you. No judgments here. But if you want to do something else during this pandemic, we can get you these grants. Your outreach work can be done many ways. One way is to hold a workshop for local sex workers, or those on your social media, teaching them about Covid safety, prevention, and also to support them getting tested. Another way is doing workshops in your local area to bring in not only doctors who are favorable to help sex workers to teach them safer ways to not catch anything, but also to get them tested in a safe environment. These workshops can also introduce sex workers to local therapists who are supportive of sex workers, self-defense teachers, criminal and/or family law attorneys willing to do pro bono work, and basically just introduce the sex worker to local resources they may find useful that are non-judgmental towards sex workers.