The Stop the Raids Coalition, a network of California sex worker organizations and individuals, of which US PROS is a part, organized a legislative push to oppose several recent California bills, including SB 1027, the bill to establish the California Street Prostitution Issues and Options Task Force and we were successful in blocking the bill.

On May 14 the bill was held under submission by the Senate Appropriations Committee. When a bill is held under submission it means that the bill is not moving forward and is effectively considered “dead” for the year. See the letter that USPROS sent to the California State Senate Public Safety Committee in opposition to the bill. 

AB 2582, which would have required that “a person who commits prostitution…be offered a diversion program,” was held under submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 14.

Research at Yale University has shown that prostitution “diversion” programs are ineffective, judgmental and punitive. Sex workers are seen not as workers, but as offenders in need of rehabilitation. Diversion programs fail to address the harms associated with the criminalization of sex work and lead to increased surveillance and control by the police and judicial system.

In addition, diversion programs are inherently coercive as they force sex workers to accept “services” under duress. We question what will happen to sex workers if we were to refuse the diversion programs? Will we be arrested and then be at risk of losing our children to social welfare? 

AB 2749 changes the legal requirements for proving intent to purchase commercial sex by clarifying that a person is guilty only if they take a direct action indicating a clear intent to purchase commercial sex. The hearing to consider this bill was postponed by the Assembly Public Safety Committee on April 7 and has not been rescheduled. 

AB 1541 would require the Department of Justice’s OpenJustice Web portal to include the number of individuals arrested for human trafficking, the number of individuals convicted for human trafficking and the number of victims of human trafficking. It is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Public Safety Committee on June 9. 

Conflating prostitution with trafficking is a serious and fundamental flow. Treating these two as the same distorts data collection resulting in biased and misleading recommendations. This conflation also leads to more money being spent on increased law enforcement against street prostitution. You can submit a letter about AB 1541 to the Senate Public Safety Committee on the California Legislature Position Letter Portal.