NEXT HEARING to OPPOSE 1388 Tuesday June 24, 2014 State Capitol, Room 126 Capital Building Sacramento, California

Press Release for Monday June 23, 2014

Assembly Public Safety Analysis SB1388

TALKING POINTS OPPOSING SB 1388 Here

The results of the first hearing on Tuesday April 22, 2014 at the Senate Public Safety Committee:
We lost the vote at the California Senate Public Safety committee. Now it goes to the Appropriations committee where we will work to expose its flaws and force law makers to answer key questions and respond to our concerns. 3 out of the 8 senators on that committee are already supporting this bad bill so we’ve got our work cut out for us.

Of course the proponents of Prop 35 got to get up there and talk talk talk but when it came to the opposition, us….the chair tried to curtail our testimony but they weren’t successful!
The chair of the committee did ask the author of the bill to respond to some of the issues raised in our testimony and he said he’d work with us as I believe they were shocked to be confronted by real steak holders who made great points.
One of the sponsors of the bill, Senator Holly Mitchell, said that we just couldn’t show up and give analysis of their bill, that our organizations had to submit written opposition and the counsel for that committee said they had received our written opposition in emails. Senator Mitchell’s admonishment was shocking even to other members of her committee. The chair asked her again if she wanted to respond to the issues we had raised as ‘everybody has their price’! LOL That was by far the high point besides getting to look the author in the eye and tell him that he had violated our human rights by not calling us to the table in crafting their legislation about us. Senator Mitchell’s comments came as a surprise to us because we had met with two of her aids in Dec. 12, 2013 at their invitation right after the Victims Compensation Board voted to repeal the discriminatory regulation. 4 of spent about 45 minutes with Senator Mitchell’s aids discussing in detail the problems with criminalization, the unreported violence, the lack of unequal protection under the law, the problems with unaccountable non profits providing ‘services’. I have corresponded with both aids since that meeting regarding other bills being considered in the senate. At no point did they communicate about introducing legislation criminalizing our customers.
After that vote, we went to the all the members of the Appropriations committee and handed them our opposition analysis and will be following up there to keep it from passing. That committee will be scrutinizing the part about how SB1388 provides no mechanisms for police accountability, oversight or grievance process in regards to the bounty system set up with community-based nonprofit organizations and law enforcement who will be the recipients of the new high fines. We are going to vigorously oppose using any funding streams for these peer counseling schemes when according to a study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan found that when asked what it would take to get , youth to give up prostitution, many kids expressed a desire for stable, long-term housing, not counseling.
We really need more people showing up to oppose so we’ll mobilize around that.

TExt For California Senate Bill 1388

2014 Senate Appropriation Committee Members List 1388

The New Zealand Model Approach to Minors in Prostitution

Constituent Letter Opposing SB1388

It seems the anti prostitution/trafficking groups are switching up their narrative to now say the customers are to blame as the pimp sex trafficker didn’t turn out to be such a lucrative funding stream for their non profits Conflict and Agency among Sex Workers and Pimps: A Closer Look at Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking STUDY

ESPU Analysis for Senate Public Safety Committee SB 1388

SB 1388 California Senate Public Safety Committee’s Analysis