More than a year after authorities in Houston made an unconventional use of nuisance-abatement litigation to control prostitution, the approach remains mired in controversy and still untested, Slate reports. With a trial in the case set for February, anti-trafficking experts are attacking the strategy for putting already vulnerable women and their families in grave danger by identifying them to the public and defense attorneys are arguing that the Harris County Attorney’s Office, which filed the lawsuit, is misusing the law.
The county filed a civil lawsuit against 50 alleged sex workers, 23 alleged buyers, and 13 alleged pimps. The goal is to ban these 86 people from engaging in a wide array of “prostitution-related activities” in a small, notorious area of Houston known as “the Track.” If the defendants are caught breaking these rules, they could face fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 and up to 30 days in jail. Defense lawyers argue that the nuisance-abatement laws on which the suit relies are meant to discipline businesses that flout laws, like bars that routinely serve underage patrons or the hourly motels or massage parlors where sex work takes place, not to target individuals. Only one other place in the U.S. has tried using a civil injunction against sex workers, as far as anyone involved in the Harris County case knows. Milwaukee banned 75 sex workers from loitering in three neighborhoods known for prostitution in 2002. That effort was largely seen as a failure, said Heather Hough, an assistant city attorney in Milwaukee. According to Hough, the injunction was hard to carry out with an overburdened police force and a vulnerable and transient population. “On paper, it looks good. Logistically, it doesn’t look as good,” Hough said. “It just fizzled out. I believe the order still stands, but it doesn’t really have any teeth.”