The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

•ii . v. ■ /' , ' 11 , I ■•'■UA t-iiTu iltid.' .>• Vn Page A8 ♦ THE CANADIAN STATESMAN ♦ August 9,2006 durhamregion.com r- b s Part 3 of 4 Reporters Izabela Ja'roszynski and Jeff Mitchell look at the issue of prostitution and what's being done to combat the problem. OSHAWA -- The sun's doing a sledgehammer sledgehammer job on Celina Street as the tan Impala floats through a turn and heads south, past a group of dudes clustered on the comer. Shirts cast off, cigarettes dangling gangster-like, their eyes track the police car; the Impala is also noticed by the young prostitute, working despite, the crushing heat, who has taken shelter in the shade of a brick wall. This is part of Oshawa's infamous prostitution track, loosely defined by a network of roads south of King Street. The streets here arc lined with modest modest bungalows, neatly kept with flower boxes and gardens whose bright colours clash with paved-over drabness. They share the landscape with sprawling, formerly formerly fine family homes that have been converted to rooming houses relegated to decay. Buildings that once shouted prosperity now advertise weariness and dissolution. "This," declares Durham Regional Police Constable 1 Chris Partridge, "is • my little part of the world." While the rest of the city goes about its, business Const. Partridge, a 39- year veteran working 17 Division in Oshawa, will patrol this neighbourhood, watching over his people. He drives and observes, keeping tabs on the prostitutes who also work the neighbourhood. There's Mary, who's be working on the street since she was 12; now she's lurching through the humidity on King Street, mumbling about money. There's Angel, whose face is as blank and hard as the asphalt under her feet, but who can be reduced to tears by thoughts of her child, now a ward of the Children's Aid Society. Here's Crystal, who is to be found lounging on the back porch of a flop- house on Albert Street. She insists she's kicked crack for good and is getting the hell out of here. "I'm done," she tells the cop.'She's dumped her pimp and wants nothing to do with the crack heads who used to inhabit her circle, she says. "If you want to talk about crack, you can just f-- off," Ciystal says. The cop wants to believe and encourage encourage her. "You be good," he tells Crystal as the car slips away from the curb. "Take care of yourself." "This is how I describe prostitution: A multi-faceted social issue that requires a comprehensive response." So says Durham Regional Police Sergeant Adam Kelly of the Oshawa Community Response Unit. Part of the CRU's mandate is monitoring the street trade in downtown Oshawa and he's all too aware of the attendant evils that accompany prostitution: The drugs, the property crime, the violence. Equally important in his mind is the decay prostitution promotes in communities. communities. Durham Regional Police Constable Chris Partridge on patrol on Celina Street in Oshawa. Jeff Mitchell / Metroland Durham Region Media Group 'These people are not write-offs' A seasoned street cop battles prostitution in Oshawa 1 BY JEFF MITCHELL "Prostitution has a tremendous impact on the community," he says. You hear it over and again from the people fighting or coping with street prostitution: Although many may think so, prostitution is far from a "victimless" "victimless" crime. ' "On the contrary," argues, Sgt. Kelly. ■ "Women working as prostitutes are victims. victims. The neighbours in the area are victims. Local businesses are victims. Spouses of Johns are victims. "It's all one huge, big circle. And they're all intertwined." Members of the CRU routinely conduct conduct blitzes .or "John sweeps," taking to the streets undercover to nab prostitutes prostitutes and their clients, arresting them for communicating for the purpose of prostitution and, in the process, often tacking on drug and weapons charges. It's a costly and labour-intensive pursuit pursuit that produces limited results. Sgt. Kelly knows once they've done their time, the girls will be back on the streets. "I can tell you for sure enforcement enforcement alone is not going to correct the problem." The root causes' that lead a woman to sell her body - the addiction, the dependency on pimps, the psychological psychological scars left by physical, emotional and sexual abuse - are what need to be addressed if she is to be finally coaxed away'from the street. "The women feel trapped and they fall into that lifestyle," Sgt. Kelly says. Many become inextricably entangled. They cannot leave on their own. And the Johns? Every man you encounter today could be one. "They come from all walks of life: young to old, unemployed to employed, uneducated to educated. You've got low-income to high-income earners." Most Johns picked up on the street, if they're not wanted or saddled with previous previous criminal records, will be released with an order to appear in court. Many of them will be diverted out of the legal system and ordered to attend John school, where they'll hear first-hand accounts of how their behaviour affects others: the hookers, residents and potentially, potentially, their wives, who can be exposed to sexually transmitted diseases. It's an eye-opener that works, Sgt. Kelly says; slats show a recidivism rate of less than 2 per cent for offenders who've attended John school. "If we can send 100 people to John school and we never have to deal with them again, that's a success story." Const. Partridge is a cop who actually dislikes arresting people, particularly the women he encounters on his beat. "I figure if I'm arresting someone, I've f--ed up," he says. "When I talk to a girl now I ask her; 'What can I do to help you? How can I get you out of this mess?"' On the street they call him the Wizard, because he can make things happen. But even a magician cannot easily pull off the "greatest of feats - freeing a woman from the restraints that tether her to this life. "I would love to walk up to the girls and say, 'Here's the plan: We're going to get you drug treatment, we're going . to get you housing, we're going to get you back in school and after that, we're going to get you a job,"'he says. , "But who's going to pay for it?" Const. Partridge is involved with the Butterfly Organization, a group of resi dents who have set up a refuge centre for women looking to get off the street. Three women have been brought in so far, he notes. Actually, four: there was also Tracy, known in the neighbourhood as Mama T She had escaped the street and was battling drug addiction when she died in March of natural causes, just 43. Const. Partridge identified her body in a Court Street rooming house. It was Tracy who showed Const. Partridge Partridge that much of what he thought he knew about prostitution was wrong. He recalls one day he made a disparaging disparaging remark about one of the denizens of downtown Oshawa who was passing by. Tracy punched him hard in the arm and admonished him: "That's somebody's kid." "That's when it got to me," he says. "The folks we're dealing with are real people. They're not here because they want to be. "We have to start supporting them sensibly. "These people -- these women -- they're not write-offs." NEWSDURHAMREGION.COM Searchkeyword: lonelystreet . Party Pepperoni Pizza 6 .99 315 square inches of Piz 1." x 15") Family Special 2 Medium 3 Topping Pizzas, R>tato Wedges & 6 Cokes plus a FREE 6 pack of Jos. Louis Up size to 2 Large Pizzas for only $5.00 more With any purchase get a 6 pack of Jos. Louis only ^,49 Taste Tke Difference. Pick-Up Special Medium Pepperoni Pizza 7-49 , Up size to a Large pizza for $2.00 more FOR TASTIER PIZZA ASK FOR IT WELL DONE =•"310-3300 Oshawa • Whitby • Courtice • Bowmanville • Broohlin Large 3 Topping Pizz with 20 Wings 23"' time offer. Not valid with any other combination or special. Delivery charge applies. Taxes extra. Valid at participating stdSé only,