Your vote and how to use it

by Gertrude Foster Brown

The entire process of dealing with the problem of public prostitution in New York City is one that is revolting from a woman’s viewpoint. To rid the streets of street-walkers and to keep them “clean,” a force of police in plain clothes patrols the streets. These police are usually the new men on the force selected for their youth and good looks. Promotion often rests on the number of arrests that they make. A smile or a nod, and a girl may respond. If she speaks, an arrest can and often does follow.

This kind of training for the young men of the police force is degrading to them. Also, the fact that arrests in nine cases out of ten are those of women of the street, does not preclude the possibility of the arrest of a silly, ignorant, but innocent girl. Brought into court, the presumption is that she is guilty.

There is always a first arrest for any offender against the law. The records of the magistrates’ courts show that nearly one-third of the women’s cases brought into court are first offenders. Called for the first time before a judge in an open court-room, incoherent with fright, the girl is often unable to say a word for herself. If she is fined, or sentenced to the workhouse, or held in detention pending investigation, and is kept in association with other women of degraded lives, the chances of her being reclaimed are practically gone.

The law holds an accused person innocent until proved guilty, but a woman accused of a crime against morality has to prove that she is innocent. Under the usual court procedure, a prostitute is outside the protection of the law and her word has no value in the court.

Night Courts have been established in order that offenders arrested at night, after the day courts have closed, may come immediately before a magistrate, without having to spend the night in jail awaiting trial. There are separate night courts for women in New York City, and all arrests for prostitution or loitering are tried in these courts.

The motive behind the establishment of the Women’s Night Court is humanitarian, but it is there that one sees the discrimination against women as the fundamental of the proceedings.

Women are sentenced to terms in prison for offenses far less serious than those for which men are discharged. The discrimination against women, and in favor of men, even extends to the cadet, who pursues the most shameful business in the world, that of exploiting unfortunate women. Until a few years ago the maximum penalty for such a man was six months in the workhouse.

The law now permits a sentence of from two to twenty years, but convictions are rare. Nearly every prostitute is exploited by some man who takes her earnings, and on whom she relies to protect her from the police. If these cadets and procurers could be eliminated it would greatly diminish professional prostitution, but they are most difficult to reach. The women they exploit will often perjure themselves to save these men from the vengeance of the law. Also, the fact that no conviction can be had on the testimony of the woman unless supported by corroborative evidence, makes her afraid to testify against one of them.

The Penalty of Fines: Imposing a fine as a punishment for prostitution should be absolutely prohibited. It does not act as a restraint, and simply means that the woman must go out on the street to earn her fine, and it makes the State a partner to her crime. It has been abolished in practice by some judges; but it is still the custom in some courts in New York State, and is even imposed by some judges in New York City. A bill to abolish fines throughout the State was introduced in the Legislature of 1916, but failed to pass.

Young Girls: Girls between the ages of sixteen and eighteen are in the most dangerous period of life. Figures show that the great majority of girls who become prostitutes are ruined before they reach seventeen years of age.