EDITOR’S VIEWPOINT/A personal approach

The subject of this editorial is prostitution, so put the kids to bed, lower the shades and under no circumstances tell John Ashcroft. I am not addressing the problem from a conservative, liberal, libertarian or feminist viewpoint. Instead, I share the pragmatic perspective of a local government that is taking a different approach to a part of society that it and countless other communities have been uncomfortably living with for generations.

Believing that, in some cases, prostitution is a symptom of one or more personal problems of the prostitute, the Mecklenburg, N.C., District Court recently joined with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the McLeod Center, a local drug treatment facility, to help guide at least some offenders into more productive lives.

Now, when a person is judged guilty of prostitution in the county, he or she has a choice of spending time in jail (or possibly on probation) or undergoing a 14-week course at the McLeod Academy. The course concentrates on drug and alcohol treatment and counseling aimed at improving decision-making skills and self-esteem. Feeding a drug addiction is the primary reason why most prostitutes work the streets in Charlotte, according to Ron Simmons, the vice detective who helped establish the program.

Additional help is available, such as assistance in finding a job, a place to live or more counseling if necessary, but only if the student completes the course. Those who drop out of the academy receive an automatic 120-day active jail sentence.

McLeod Center tailored its drug, alcohol and counseling program to meet the specific needs of prostitutes based on the center’s experience working with them for the past couple of years, says Genny Kleiser, the center’s director of operations. Even before the courts began sending McLeod referrals, the center had produced 11 women who “got clean and stayed clean,” Kleiser says. So far, the court has sent 17 women to the facility for treatment.

Since McLeod is a private, non-profit organization, the cost to the community for the program is practically nothing, Kleiser says. But the benefits of fewer prostitutes on the streets can be measured in fewer emergency room visits and decreasing numbers of sexually transmitted diseases.

Americans have always had a difficult time even discussing sex, much like we used to be embarrassed when we talked about a person’s mental health. We’ve finally taken an adult approach to dealing with mental health problems, and I am encouraged to see Charlotte-Mecklenburg County and its court system shed the emotional skin of its prostitution problem to get to its very personal, inner core. Because, in the end, it will be more productive to address a problem’s cause than treat its symptoms.