N.Y. Prostitution Surveyed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31902, 1 February 1969, Page 19

N.Y. Prostitution Surveyed

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK. The “New York Times” has released a survey on prostitution in New York and gave lenient laws as the reason why streetwalkers have swarmed to New York from all over the country—even as far away as Alaska. The newspaper, in an illustrated front-page story, says pimps pocketing up to $lOOO a week sneer openly at thei law, which provided a maxi--mum penalty of 15 days ini gaol and a $250 fine. The survey showed thati most of the streetwalkers andl pimps were Negro. Nearly all girls worked in the streets i or hotels of the mid-town l area for up to 12 or 13 hours i a day. The largest number of girls ranged in age from 17 to 23, but among those recently convicted was a 71-year-old woman. The New York Times News Service gave some of the manifestations of the situation in New York: Major hotel owners complain that prostitutes and their associates account for nearly all the crime in their establishments. Lawyers specialising ini prostitution talk of cash-, ing in on the surge in! trade. Judges lament the new! liberalised prostitution! law as a failure com-j pounded by its contributions to other crimes ini New York. Other law enforcement! officials bemoan what they l

call “bargain counter” justice that permits prostitutes to escape the maximum penalties of an already mild criminal statute. : Before September. 1967, prostitutes were liable to a sentence of up to a year in gaol but many lawmakers reigarded prostitution as a i social rather than a criminal ‘problem, and believed that a harsh penalty failed as a deterrent. ! As a result, the law was i liberalised. “This 15-day law is nutty,” dsaid Judge Amos Basel, of . the Criminal Court, in a reticent interview-. "Under the ’ | guise of a social advance, I we’re just giving them a pass--11 port to act as they wish. }■ “The girls who walk the are not just social They're pick--pockets. They’re pushing nar--5 cotics. They’re luring men into traps where they get 5 beaten up and robbed.” Judge Basel, who compiled I a list of criminal offences I committed by 128 women I brought before him on pros- . titution charges, said he . found that 45 per cent had ' previous assault, burglary and narcotics records. Last week the Police De- | partment released statistics | showing a total of 8045 prostitution arrests during’ 1968. I a 27 per cent rise over 1967 and a 70 per cent increase -over 1966. Almost all the ■| women arrested were repeated offenders. | Judge Basel observed: (“These girls are getting into II some of the better hotels and ■| then going around banging |on doors. If nobody answers, -they go in, with stolen keys lor burglar tools. If a man 'answers, they say: ‘Do you •want a girl?’”

Judge Thomas Weaver, also of the Criminal Court, who tried 25 to 30 girls a day on prostitution charges last month, commented: “1 think the 15-day law was an invitation to prostitutes and pimps all over the country to come to New York. Records show they come from as far as California and Hawaii, and there was one girl who had been in Alaska.” No “census” has ever been made of street-walkers, but the police estimate that the number is less than 1000. The real money-makers of prostitution—the pimps—-

appear in court to put-up bail for the girls they control. In addition they openly recruit from the “morning line” of 20 to 30 prostitutes who sit along one wall of the courtroom in view of the spectators. Pimps may acquire new “properties” by posting bail for an unattached woman. About a dozen lawyers handle most of the Manhattan prostitution cases, representing 20 to 30 prostitutes each at $lOO to $l5O a case. They usually have all-night answering services and a list of regular clients.