4th April 2009

Action Alert: How to oppose the Policing and Crime Bill

English Collective of Prostitutes Action alerts, Latest News Policing and Crime Act

Stop the criminalisation of sex workers

Oppose the Policing and Crime Bill

Dear Friends,

Clauses in the Policing and Crime Bill are due to be debated at the end of October. We’ll keep you informed as we find out details.

Many of you have written before, expressing your opposition. Politicians claim to be targeting ‘demand’ i.e. clients. They hide that it is mainly women, prostitute women, who will bear the brunt of the new measures, and that by increasing criminalisation they undermine safety. None of us want to see another Ipswich. Now is the time to write again.

We enclose below:

1. A statement for organisations to sign. Please ask any groups or organisations you are part of or know to add their name to the prestigious list of signatures. You may need to pursue people vigorously as time is short. Please send back signatures to us (ecp@allwomencount.net) as soon as you get them.

2. A model letter for individuals where you can make your particular case against these measures. Many people have expressed outrage that it is women in government who call themselves feminists who are attacking other women in this way. Please copy any letter you write to us at ecp@prostitutescollective.net

The attached briefing gives more detail.

Safety YES, victimisation NO.

Many thanks,

Cari Mitchell

1. STATEMENT FOR ORGANISATIONS TO SIGN – ADD YOUR ORGANISATION BELOW

Impact of the Policing and Crime Bill on the health and safety of sex workers

As individuals and organisations concerned with health and safety, we believe that legislation on prostitution should be judged first of all by whether it helps sex workers, especially women and their families. We don’t think the Policing and Crime Bill now before parliament does that.

The harsher definition of persistent soliciting (twice over a period of three month), the forced “rehabilitation” of those arrested, and the targeting of brothels for raids and closure, will drive prostitution further underground, increasing the vulnerability of those involved. Fear of arrest deters women from reporting violence or to access health or other services. Mothers, the majority of sex workers, worry about protecting their children from the stigma attached to criminalisation, and from the separation that may result from a prison sentence. A criminal record also prevents those who may want to leave prostitution from getting other jobs, even when they are qualified for them.

It is well established that working from premises is much safer than working on the street, as women can work collectively and support each other. Whatever our views on prostitution, we believe that the policing of rape and other violence should be prioritised over the policing of consenting sex.

The government agrees that most women involved in prostitution do so because of economic need, debt, homelessness, domestic violence … Why then during a profound economic recession bring in legislation that will further criminalise women?

In May 2009 Royal College of Nursing Congress voted 93% in favour for up to four sex workers to be allowed to work together legally. Delegates voted through the measure believing that decriminalisation will remove the stigma of prostitution, enabling sex workers to access the health services that they need.

New Zealand successfully introduced decriminalisation six years ago on the basis that the health and safety of sex workers was paramount, and that to achieve it sex workers and their organisations had to be involved in the legislative process.

We urge the government to drop the new measures and look at New Zealand as the best way forward.

Signed by:

Andrea Spyropoulos	Royal College of Nursing
Revd Andrew Dotchin	Whitton Rectory, Ipswich
Anthea Martin*	Middlesex University
April Wareham	National Users Network
Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon	Reader in Psychology & Social Policy, Birkbeck College, UoL
Cari Mitchell	English Collective of Prostitutes
Catherine Stephens	International Union of Sex Workers
Charlotte Gage*	Women’s Resource Centre
Chris Coverdale	Make Wars History
Clayton Littlewood	Soho author and playwright
Colin Francome	Professor of Sociology of Health, Middlesex University
Bridget Anderson	Centre on Migration Policy & Society. Univ of Oxford
Dan Lepard	Guardian food writer & author
Dave Renton, barrister	Garden Court Chambers
Revd David Gilmore	Rector, Parish of St Anne with St Thomas & St Peter, Soho
Felicity de Zulueta	Consultant Psychotherapist & Honorary Senior Lecturer, KCL
Frances Ackroyd	Minister, United Reformed Church
Frances Harper	Documentary film-maker
Georgina Perry	Open Doors Service Manager, CHPCT
Geraldine Black*	Community Links
Gemma Amran*	Public Concern at Work
Ginnie Langdon	Enfield Women’s Centre
Gordon Morse	Fellow, Royal College of General Practitioners
Graham Dobkin	Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH)
Gregory King	Working Men Project, St Mary’s Hospital
A.C. Higgins	Health promotion specialist, CLASH
Ian Macdonald QC	Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
James Mannion	Sex work advisor, Soho Boyz
Jane Pitcher	Post graduate student, Loughborough University
Jane Ayres	Praed Street Project, St Mary’s Hospital
Jean Johnson	Women’s Institute, Hampshire Federation
Jenepher Parry*	South Solent University, School of Law
Jennifer Peacy*	Durham University
Joan Shenton	Immunity Resource Foundation
John Davies FRSA	Visiting Research Fellow at WitsWaterand University,
Julia O’Connell Davidson	Prof. of Sociology & Social Policy, Uni of Nottingham
Hon. Juliet Peston	Soho Society member Executive Committee
Justin Gaffney	SohoBoyz
Kay Adshead	Poet, playwright and director, author of Thatcher’s Women
Laura Schwartz	Feminist Fightback
Lee Brooker	SW5 Project & Terrence Higgins Trust
Lisa Longstaff	Women Against Rape
Dr Maggie O’Neill	Dept. Social Sciences, Loughborough University
R Mannah	Structures Treatment Practitioner, Westminster Drugs Project
Matt Southwell	Respect Drug User Network
Michael Kalmonovitz	Payday Men’s Network
Michelle Farley	Sexual Health on Call
Milly Plater	CPN / Specialist nurse in substance misuse
Niamh Eastwood	Release, Head of Legal Services and Deputy Director
Dr Nicola Smith	Senior Lecturer, University of Birmingham
Dr Nick Mai	Senior Research Officer, London Metropolitan University
Niki Adams	Legal Action for Women
Nina Lopez	Global Women’s Strike
Rev Paul Nicolson	Zacchaeus 2000 Trust
Paul Ridge	Associate, Bindmans LLP
Robert Lambert	Branch Secretary, Colchester Unite Central Branch 1861.
Rosie Campbell	UK Network of Sex Work Projects
Sabrina Miller*	Tower Hamlets Drug Project
Sandra Gibson	Inner South Community Health Service RhED Program
Sebastian Horsley	Soho resident, artist, writer
Siobhan Kilkenny	Working with sex workers and drugs users, Huddersfield
Stella Whitehouse	S.A.V.E. Sandwell self-help user group
Sue Conlan	Tyndallwoods solicitors
Struan Rodger	Actor
Sue Johnson	Prostitute Outreach Workers, Nottingham
Susan Mayer	Secular Feminists
Steve Freer	Respect National Users Network
Tara Quadlet	Turning Point, Birmingham, User volunteer
Teresa Mackay	Ipswich Trades Council
Tracey Chaniler	Hammersmith & Fulham DATT Team
Tricia Clarke	Communication Workers Union Women’s Advisory Cttee
Valerie J Evans	Former Chair Women’s National Commission
Wendy Mitchell*	Sefton Drugs Action Team
Will Stone*	Avon and Bristol Law Centre

* Signed in a personal capacity

ADD YOUR ORGANISATION HERE:

Contact: Safety First Coalition, 230A Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AB ecp@allwomencount.net 020 7482 2496

2. MODEL LETTER TO SEND TO PEERS (emails below)

[YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS]

Dear [see list of Peers below.]

I strongly oppose clauses on prostitution in the Policing and Crime Bill 2009 which would: make it easier for the police to arrest women for “loitering and soliciting”; extend “closure orders” against sex workers’ premises; introduce compulsory “rehabilitation” of sex workers under threat of imprisonment; arrest presumed kerb-crawlers on a first offence; introduce a strict liability offence of “paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force” (i.e. no need to show knowledge or recklessness); extend powers to search, seize and retain property under Proceeds of Crime legislation.

If these proposals become law, they will increase criminalisation and imprisonment, particularly of women, and push prostitution further underground, putting sex workers more at risk of violence.

[Add something about your own experience and your particular concerns . . . ]

These measures should be withdrawn. I urge you to speak and vote against them when they come to the Lords.

NAME

POSITION IF YOU HAVE ONE

—————————————-

List of peers to send model letter to:

Priority

Baroness Sue Miller millers@parliament.uk

Baroness Vivien Stern helen.fair@kcl.ac.uk

Baroness Angela Harris harrisa@parliament.uk

Baroness Anita Gale galea@parliament.uk

Baroness Anne Gibson gibsona@parliament.uk