‘John School’ for Scandal

May 04, 2007 10:44 AM

Asa Eslocker and Dana Hughes Report:

As part of a crackdown on prostitution, the Justice Department is spending $25 million on “John Schools,” allowing men caught in prostitution investigations to avoid criminal charges and public exposure.

Wives and girlfriends never need to know.

Instead in at least six major cities around the country, the men attend a three to six-hour course, where they are instructed on the dangers and harms of prostitution by former prostitutes, prosecutors and health officials.

Photos A Day in the Life of a ‘John’

“This program is offered to help keep your record clean,” prosecutor Marisa Mercandetti told a group of men this week at a John school called “Project Respect” run by the District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The men pay a $250 fee, and the arrest is stricken from their record if they are not caught soliciting a prostitute again within six months.

In Brooklyn, prostitutes are also offered a six-week rehabilitative program to help get them off the streets.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

But in many parts of the United States, programs for women arrested on prostitution charges don’t exist, a discrepancy in punishment that is all too common, says Dr. Melissa Farley, the director of the Prostitution Research and Education Center in San Francisco.

“What usually happens in prostitution stings is that the women are arrested. The women are incarcerated. The women are taken out in handcuffs,” says Farley. “The men who buy and use women in prostitution slowly and quietly slink off.”

Dr. Farley says that while “John schools” could be considered a form of punishment, they still perpetuate the idea the crime is worse for the women selling than for the men buying. “It’s too minor a penalty for an act that I consider a human rights violation,” she says. Dr. Farley says that usually a John will receive the same treatment as a jaywalker.
But in Brooklyn, prosecutors say they are equally as tough on the Johns as they are on the prostitutes. They say the John schools help curb the demand side of the prostitution business.

“The DA believes that an effective way to deal with the ever growing problem of prostitution was to focus on the demand: the men paying for sex, the ‘Johns,’ which is all of you here tonight,” prosecutor Mercandetti told the men attending class this week.

During the five-hour presentation, the men listen to former prostitutes tell their stories of abuse and degradation, watch slide shows with graphic examples of sexually transmitted diseases and are reminded that solicitation of prostitution, while a misdemeanor, is still against the law.

“No one here is your lawyer. We have not been retained to help you with any legal matters,” warned Assistant District Attorney Mercandetti. “You only have one opportunity to take this program. You only have one chance. The next time you’re arrested for patronizing a prostitute, there will be no program offered. You only have one chance from removing this charge from your record, and if you should commit this crime again, you will go to trial, and it will be a public trial.”

We want to teach you “respect for women, respect for the law, respect for the communities in which you were arrested and respect for yourselves and your family,” she told them.

The Kings County Sex Crimes Unit Chief Rhonnie Jaus says that in Brooklyn there is a very low recidivism rate for offenders who attend the school. Out of 2,000 participants, only nine have returned. “The Johns program is an alternative to incarceration,” she says.

Dr. Farley says it is important to establish that prostitution is not a “victimless crime” as is often the perception. “Prostitution usually involves the appearance of consent. For the woman who’s being bought, it’s an acting job,” she says. “You don’t go into prostitution and risk HIV, rape and sexual assault just in order to go to a spa or get your nails done. There are more compelling factors, like economic need and a history of sexual abuse, that lead women into escort, or any other prostitution.”

Palfrey Press Conference Today…

She’s auctioning a radio interview on EBay.

Listen to the Press Conference

Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    Contact:      Ms. Marika Szoke

March 9, 2007                                                   858  442-6460                                                                                   

TIME CHANGE –  10AM PDT

AUCTION DECISION for CONFIDENTIAL INTERVIEWS WITH JEANE PALFREY, aka “D.C. Madame”

 

NEW TAPE EXCERPTS TO BE RELEASED . . .

 

 

PRESS CONFERENCE

WEDNESDAY,  May 9^th, 10:00 AM PDT

LISTEN LIVE ON INTERNET SIMULCAST AT http://www.wsradio.com/.  CLICK THE RED “LISTEN LIVE” BUTTON

 

wsRadio.com Headquarters

6150 Lusk Blvd. #B-102 

(North on Lusk from Mira Mesa Blvd.)

San Diego, CA 92121

 

WHAT:            wsRadio.com, an Internet Talk Radio Network headquartered in San Diego, California, announces decision to conclude a private sale or to auction SIX HOURS of exclusive radio interviews with Jeane Palfrey, aka “the D.C. Madam” on eBay.  Originally, there were FIVE hours but Jeane Palfrey recorded AN ADDITIONAL HOUR-LONG interview as a result of ABC NEWS’ failure last Friday to reveal important details, names, and dates from the information she provided them.

New excerpts from most recent one-hour interview to be released to attending media.

 WHO:           “If we get the right offer from the right company we may not proceed with the eBay listing, although I personally would like to see what eBay, the world’s online marketing place will bring,” said wsRadio’s Chris Murch. Any interested parties should contact our VP, Director of Sales and Marketing Jack Warren at 858-623-0199 ext 105 or Jack@wsRadio.com.

                        On MONDAY, Palfrey released MORE PHONE LISTS to an independent journalist organization.  These lists, covering the “Clinton years” of 1997 – 1999, have been given to the Washington Independent Writers Association in Washington DC.  They began their investigation of the numbers and names today.

NOTE:  wsRadio has an exclusive contract with Ms. Palfrey to “Tell Her Side of the Story.” The show is hosted by radio veteran Lee Mirabal of wsRadio.com. “This is Jeane Palfrey’s story … in her own words … without the subjective editing and exploitation by media outlets, government agencies and more.” The content is riveting, as Palfrey describes details of her business, the women who worked for her and the high profile beltway clientele who used the service. wsRadio produces over 80 custom business, health, hobby and special interest shows. The network uses traditional radio formatting including commercial breaks, broadcasting to a global audience on the Internet. All shows broadcast live via the Internet and are then archived for listening on demand, 24/7.

Website: http://www.wsradio.com

 

piss, pantyhose, and sweet stuff

It’s been a full week. But it’s keeping everyone in handkerchiefs so it’s a blessing. I’ve been thinking a lot about all the topics we’ve been discussing here, and having a rush of emotions alongside it.

I have had a very stong emotional reaction to the constant insistence by various parties that what I do cannot be genuinely real, or healing. It has been an underlying current in all the sessions I have had in the last few days, something that has been utterly present in my interactions with my clients, and I want to say a few words about what I have felt and thought during these moments. First, I’ll paint you a protrait of each of the clients I’ve seen in the last three days.

Friday and Sat evening I spent a few hours with a gentleman in the military. He is career, and lives very far away from here, but comes to my city on occasion. He is a lovely, gentle, man of color. I don’t know too much about his background, but he has erectile dysfunction, and focuses much more on giving than recieving because of it. I insisted that he let me work on him, and with the use of some yohimbe salve, made by a good friend of mine, and a lot of communication, he was able to achieve orgasm both nights.

Sunday I spent time with a young man with a chronic disease that makes him have some very peculiar physical characteristics. Some would call them unattractive, but I find them interesting, and beautiful in their own way. He is stuck on a past relationship in which his girlfriend would often have sex with him in a very specific outfit, with her clothes on. He leaves his clothes on, and so do I, and we spend two hours exploring his fetishes of closed toed pumps, and sundresses. We talk about fetish, and I know that we will see each other again, until he gets more comfortable, until he is able to process what he really wants to tell me.

Later Sunday, I saw Roger, a man in his late seventies who has had prostate cancer. He has had his prostate removed, and has a pump installed in his scrotum to get him hard. He’s a lovely, sweet old perv with a thing for golden showers (being pissed on) and nipple tweaking. We had a great time, I pissed on his cock while he masturbated and he told me how much fun he had. He brought me a case of oranges he’d just picked off the tree in his yard.

Monday, I saw a client who I have a very special arrangement with. He is not very well off, so he does work around the house for me, and pays me small amounts when he can. We have a connection deeper than I have ever experienced with a client. But I know very well that attempting a relationship on more conventional terms would not work. Our lives are too different. Taking our connection out of context would kill the beauty of it. Because he is my client, I am able to give him things that I never could in a relationship. I am able to be with him an a purely giving state, for a brief moment in time. This time, we stripped naked, and sat in meditation with each other, and then he wept in my arms for a long, long time. Few words were spoken, they weren’t important. But we leave each other with love and caring, even if we never see each other again.

Shortly thereafter, I met with Jeremy. He is in his mid-forties, and successful in his work life. He is good humoured, funny, and irreverant. He has taken the threat of heart disease seriously, and works out every day. We spend two hours together, as we usually do. I do some serious deep tissue work on his body, reflexology, and shiatsu. He breathes deep, and lets me tell him about the benefits of yoga. He is awakening his male g-spot, allowing me to access sexual energy that he has never been able to access before. He has the most incredible orgasms with me, while I massage his prostate.

Then there’s Brad. Atttractive and tall, in his mid thirties. An attorney from New York who has an armpit, foot, and spit fetish. I work out beforehand, so I’m nice and sweaty and stinky. I smother him with my armpits , ass and feet until he nearly vomits, make him suck all the sweat off my hairy pits. I tie him up with my pantyhose and fuck him with a strap-on, with his legs in the air while I spit all over him.  I piss in his mouth and force him to drink it while he gags.  He loves it. He says it is the best session he, and maybe anyone, has ever had.

Point is, I am good at what I do. I have studied sexuality in all its forms for many years. I am comfortable with all sorts of fetishes, I am nearly impossible to shock. I am able to state my boundaries, and tell people when they’re being inappropriate, when they need counseling, when they should look elsewhere for sexual gratification. But not only am I afforded no recognition as an expert in my field, I am derided at every turn for being unaware, used, abused, taken advantage of, misguided, or insane.

Tell me, all you detractors, which one of you would sleep with an eighty year old man with a piss fetish for free? Would you truly allow him to explore your body, and enjoy it, if you weren’t getting paid for it? Where will he find a woman to explore his fantasies with, before he dies? He has survived cancer, and many other things…would you deny him sexual affection in his last years here on earth?

My job is not just about sex and fantasy. It is about creating a haven. A sanctuary. I hold a place in the world for disparate and secret desires. Not dysfunctional or abusive desires, just desires that are at odds with the society that we have created.

In a perfect world, I would not be a necessity. Access to sex and sexual healing would not be based on physical appearance, economic success, or youth, but the content of one’s character. But we do not live in a perfect world, and therefore I create the space to make people feel beautiful.

Yes. We should be confronting these constructs of gender, ability, size, etc. But who among you would do it for free? The visceral, but necessary work of fucking for freedom? Until you can truly say that you have grown your sexual attraction beyond the scope of the physical body, cast no stones.

I DO help my clients. I help them understand, process, and address their desire, need, and privilege. I do not let them get away with things based on privilege. I operate with a sliding scale fee. I teach them how to be better people, and they teach me. It is not always great, but it is always useful.

thinking of you,

surgeon