Portland, Oregon was the first city in United States to directly address the real cause of prostitution, the Johns, by developing an offender treatment program through the court system. Sadly, the originators of the program, the Sexual Exploitation Education Project had stopped running the program in the mid 90s. The Baldwin Foundation also believes in the importance of addressing the demand side of prostitution, and in 2003 our proposal for a new "Johns School" was accepted by the Multnomah County Community and Circuit Courts. Assignment to the program is a result of conviction and is a condition of probation. The District Attorney does not allow diversion without a conviction.

The Portland Prostitution Offender Program, as it is more formally called, is a six hour class that runs every six weeks or so, and is limited to ten people who have been screened by the courts for any criminal record of violence or repetitive crime. The following agenda is what we use for the class.

1. Participants complete Farley questionnaire regarding their current attitudes and beliefs related to prostitution.


2. Explanation of program goals and rules:
   
   
   1. Goals: To discuss in detail the negative impact of a person's involvement in the sex industry can have on their lives, their family's lives, the prostituted people's lives, and on their community. To convince a significant portion of the program's participants to reduce or end their involvement with the sex industry.
   
   
   2. Rules: Program will begin on time and end on time. Bathroom breaks must be kept to a minimum. Respect towards the presenters and fellow participants must be shown at all times. Lunch is from noon to one o'clock. There will be a fifteen-minute break at three o'clock.


3. The laws related to commercial sex, and the various charges and penalties that accompany a prostitution arrest.
   
   
   1. Unlawful Prostitution Procurement Activity.
   2. Solicitation for prostitution.
   3. Prostitution.
   4. Promoting prostitution.
   5. Compelling prostitution.
   6. Rape/Sodomy/Sexual Abuse of a child below the age of consent.
   7. Mann Act. Crossing state lines for engaging in prostitution.
   8. Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
   9. PROTECT Act.


4. Sexually transmitted diseases pertaining to prostitution. Emphasis on drug resistant bacteria and incurable viral diseases, such as herpes, hepatitis C, and HIV.


5. Additional ways involvement with prostitution puts a person at risk: robbed, used for criminal activity, being physically assaulted and murdered.


6. Strip clubs and pornography: legal forms of prostitution that serve as funnels into more direct prostitution.
   
   
   1. Continuous exposure to offers of prostitution.
   
   
   2. Exposure to destructive behaviors: gambling addiction, alcoholism, and dependence on illegal drugs.
   
   
   3. Interruption, destruction, and loss of family, job, and other healthy relationships due to spending excessive time and money. Potential incarceration due to stealing in order to support the addictions.


7. Detailed discussion of how prostitution works (see handout entitled How Prostitution Works): the johns, the pimps, and the life of an average prostituted person: their childhoods, how they were taken into the sex industry, how they are treated in prostitution, and the long-term damages to their lives from being prostituted.


8. Guest speaker addressing the realities of surviving prostitution and/or living in a community saturated by the sex industry.


9. Sexual disorders and treatment.


10. Evaluations, recommendations, and referrals.

Renewed program aims to curb prostitution in Multnomah Co.