The Dallas Observer has a long and fascinating article about a relatively new initiative for the Dallas judicial system.  STAR Court stands for Strengthening, Transition, and Recovery, and it seeks to give repeat prostitution offenders the tools to turn their lives around.  Unsurprisingly, if a street prostitute is given the tool to turn her life around, she does.

Although this sounds like common sense, it isn't.  A lot of people still assume that prostitutes are less than human, or that they choose their lifestyle to satisfy their own wanton promiscuity.  The very idea of treating prostitutes like human beings is shocking to many people, if not outright laughable.

Just to be clear, I am talking about your everyday urban streetwalker.  As opposed to the higher echelons of pay-for-play, which pays better, and attracts a more discerning clientele.  I have known several call girls and escorts, and they clearly had entered into a risky but well-paying lifestyle with a clear head.  If you're making several grand a night, you have a strong incentive to work out, eat right, and refuse to let yourself be treated poorly by anyone - be it your handler or a client.

At this level, prostitution is much more clearly a woman's choice.  It's not a socially acceptable choice, and it's a riskier choice than say a career in IT.  But it's valid, and it would be more so if we could legally extend basic protections like health insurance and worker's rights.

However, the STAR Court in Dallas is handling the opposite end of the spectrum.  Women who have nowhere to go, and nothing to offer the world but the ability to be mistreated in exchange for money.  These are the desperate women, the drug addicted women, the abused and vulnerable women.  The invisible women.

Jail time is no threat to these women.  In fact, jail time is almost a bonus.  At least jail is warm, and they feed you.  Jail isn't any more risky than living on the streets, and in many ways it's a lot more pleasant.  Jail time is a temporary impediment at worst.  

The recidivist statistic for the STAR Court is currently a staggeringly low 10 percent.  In other words, 90 percent of the women who complete the 45 day STAR treatment system go on to get their lives together, and stay off the street.  

That a program as liberal and humanitarian as STAR Court should be adopted in Texas is nothing short of shocking.  However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has crunched the numbers and found that STAR Court saves the City of Dallas a startling amount of money every year, by ending the recidivism.  That should make it popular with the conservatives, if nothing else will!

In the end, it all comes down to setting aside prejudice and treating people as people.  Is that so weird?  You would think so, in a world where a medieval style public shaming is one of the most common tools used to attempt to end prostitution.