All though my Junior Theme is done my topic is still forever in my mind . In the Chicago Sun-Times there was an article about over population in the Cook County Jail and how it is being handled. To summarize, the jail has decided to put people who commit non-violent acts on house arrest instead of jail. Specifically the county officials will "end felony arrests for prostitution". If the jail refuses to put arrested prostitutes in jail then the business is only going to continue to thrive.
In my research I have found that most women who stop prostituting stop because they get arrested and placed into a center to rehabilitate themselves. One example of this is Marian Hatcher and the Sheriff's Women's Justice Program which you can read about in my earlier post. It is programs like this that help women who have prostituted get clean and get their life back on track. Prostituted women who are on the streets are addicted to that lifestyle and almost always need outside help to get off the streets. Without these arrests prostituted women will continue in their lifestyle of personal destruction.
Someone else who is against this new idea is Chief Judge Tim Evans who feels that, "the purpose of a bail hearing is for a judge to decide how best to ensure the return of the defendant to court and protect public safety.....not to reduce jail population". With prostitutes being on house arrest the jail can not monitor their progress or help them stay out of jail in the future. And all though it is keeping jail population down currently, without help these prostitutes will likely be arrested again. What could be another solution to decrease jail population? Without arresting for non-violent felonies, do you think that this makes crime less illegal?
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