Women’s Detention Chief Thinks It’s a Crime to Jail Prostitutes
Since it is a criminal offence, she says, let the Johns be jailed, too.
The Washington Daily News, January 13, 1972: “If prostitution is going to be a crime for Pauline, let it be a crime for Peter, too,” says Pat Taylor, the practical woman who runs the District’s Woman’s Detention Center. She makes no bones about her contempt for the law that puts women behind bars for practicing the world’s oldest profession.
“I don’t see anything wrong with prostitution,” Mrs. Taylor states flatly. “There would be many an unhappy family without prostitutes.” She considers prostitution a “medical problem. It’s not my place to legislate morality.”
Mrs. Taylor, who says, “I don’t call a woman a prostitute unless she’s been convicted of it,” is cynical about both the need and the possibility of rehabilitating a prostitute. “A good street prostitute makes between $300 and $400 a night, and a good call girl between $40,000 and $50,000 a year. Prostitution is a lucrative trade. How can you convince a streetwalker to give that up for a $100 a week office job?” And, she adds, dryly, in her soft throaty voice, “Society doesn’t encourage her to give it up.”
Evidently, Mrs. Taylor doesn’t waste too much time trying. In fact, she believes that the education a woman receives at WDC (there are high school classes as well as courses in health and law) may upgrade a prostitute when she gets back on the street. “If I can teach a streetwalker enough math to realize her pimp is cheating her, maybe she’ll feel she knows enough to become a call girl.”
Who puts a prostitute in jail? Mrs. Taylor smiles ironically and begins: “Well, we rarely get a high-priced call girl in here. The higher the price, the higher the quality of their services. She has her protectors. The fairly-well-to-do prostitute keeps her attorney and bondsman paid up in advance so she can get immediate release. But the streetwalker just has her pimp.”
And so it is the poorest prostitute, with the least protection, who is most vulnerable “when some man thinks he isn’t getting his money’s worth. And if she clips him for money or his watch, he’s likely to scream bloody murder.”
Mrs. Taylor is much more concerned with the increasing violence that brings women to WDC. Murder is the second ranking cause — drugs are first and account for 80 to 88 percent of the inmates — followed by petty larceny, armed robbery and forgery. Prostitution is sixth.
“The attitude of the new prisoner is far afield from prisoners of 10 and 15 years ago. They were prideful of their profession, albeit illegal. But there weren’t so many crimes of violence. People didn’t go around shooting other people. Now they don’t hold human life in high esteem.”
And Mrs. Taylor thinks she understands why. “The whole damn country is hell-bent on destruction. There’s nothing but talk about wars and senseless gore. Prison is a small segment of the community at large. If as a nation we can’t define our values, how can we expect our children to define their values? We’re coming up with a whole generation who seriously and rightfully question our value system. We say one thing and do another. The children of today question and challenge our course and I think they should.”
Mrs. Taylor and her husband, Aaron, who works at the Juvenile Detention Center, have two foster children, Kenny, 7, and Andre, 11, in whom they are trying to instill a “sense of self, a sense of responsibility.”
And when it comes to responsibility, Mrs. Taylor believes the community is shirking in the area of prison reform. “The community at large is incensed when a vicious crime is committed. They want blood. But a year later when the criminal is behind bars the community says, ‘Now, change him into a human being.’ Okay, give us the money with which to do it. What does the community want? The community must make up its mind.”
What does Mrs. Taylor need? “I want a psychiatrist. We need a psychiatrist to help us deal with the emotional problems you have in jail. They’re tremendous. And give me money to train my staff on how to deal with psychiatric problems.” Mrs. Taylor is far from losing heart, though. She attacks her work with zest and patience. “If we can help one in 100, it’s worth it, she says. “You don’t give up on the others.” Mrs. Taylor, who claims she has a volatile temper, says what pulls her through is her sense of humor. “And I drink a lot of milk so I don’t get ulcers.”
Originally Published as: WDC’s Pat Taylor: She takes a pragmatic view of prostitution
