Shocking: Sex Workers Are Being Prosecuted for Carrying Condoms

Photo Credit: coreyann on Flickr

At Lafayette Avenue and Barretto Street, a young man slowly navigated a maroon van past empty warehouses in search of street sex workers. The woman seated next to him remained silent, staring out the passenger side window. When he saw a familiar woman walking alone, he pulled over and decided to wait as she solicited a black Nissan. Less than two minutes after getting in the car, she exited and approached the van to get condoms and food. She nervously told the woman in the passenger seat that she turned the Nissan down after realizing it was an undercover cop.

When the van circled the block five minutes later, the same woman was caught between two grey and black vans. Her wrists were cuffed and a stained canvas bag lay at her feet, its contents -- the newly acquired condoms and food -- were spilled on the street.

Ricardo “Pichi” Canales, 33, and Lana Rosas, 25, drive around the Bronx and Harlem every Friday evening doing outreach for Citiwide, a harm-reduction organization in the South Bronx that provides free condoms and other miscellaneous health supplies to intravenous drug users and sex workers. New York City started distributing free male condoms in 1971 to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Today, these condoms are used as evidence in prostitution arrests. In January, a bill that would prohibit police from submitting condoms as evidence of prostitution or intent to solicit will be introduced in Albany. The “No Condoms As Evidence” bill, co-sponsored by N.Y. Senator Velmanette Montgomery, has been reintroduced every year since 1999 but has yet to make it to the floor for a vote. On March 24, the N.Y. Senate Codes Committee passed the bill and sent it to the Judiciary Committee for consideration.

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Far from Albany, the Citiwide van door slid open to reveal four large storage containers perched behind the driver and passenger seats. The middle seat had been removed to make room for the bins containing condoms, hygiene supplies, bleach kits and 15 food packages prepared by Bailey’s House, a homeless shelter in New York City.

After ordering off the dollar menu, Rosas, Canales and Kobrak planned the night’s outreach strategy as they quickly ate their sandwiches in the McDonald’s parking lot.

Canales warned that the streets would be quiet and explained that sex workers don’t go out as much at the beginning of the month. “A lot of girls are in the clubs,” he said. “Soldiers get their pension checks and come here to the clubs, rent a girl, go to the house and spend the whole night getting high.”

The first woman they spotted was Sue, a bleached blonde in her late 40s. She stood in the shadows of an abandoned Hunts Point warehouse with two older black men. One of the men approached Rosas to ask for food, condoms and a hygiene kit. Canales identified him as Sue’s pimp, Thaddeus. According to Rosas, Thaddeus runs a couple of shooting galleries, abandoned houses where people go to shoot up drugs. Shooting galleries also provide space where sex workers can sleep and dealers can sell drugs. “It’s crazy. You see people sleeping in the bathroom, in the living room, in the bedroom and in the hall,” Canales said.

A dark sedan pulled up to the opposite corner, one of Sue’s regulars. As she hurried to open the passenger-side door, Thaddeus called out to let her know he would wait for her to return.

According to Canales, most of the sex workers he sees have pimps. Sometimes, it is a very beneficial relationship and other times it can be exploitative. Age and addiction are two major factors that determine how much autonomy and equality sex workers have in their relationships with their pimps. Some women derive most of their emotional support from their pimps, while others just look for someone who won’t beat them and will bail them out of jail if they’re arrested.