by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
City Council member Suzanne Jenkins says she wants to clean up prostitution in Duval County and is prepared to lobby a policy change at the State level if necessary.
Jenkins, who heads the Council’s newly-formed subcommittee on prostitution, said she’ll start by drafting a resolution supporting Sheriff John Rutherford’s Operation Showdown, a three-pronged piece of legislation aimed at doling out harsher penalties for repeat misdemeanor offenders.
“As soon as we take a bite out of crime,” said Rutherford, “someone else is going to spit out somewhere else. We need to target these repeat offenders.”
In the report, Rutherford also cited prostitution as a common link between other serious crimes, including drug use and guns.
Jenkins, who is joined on the subcommittee by Council members Glorious Johnson, Mia Jones and Daniel Davis, said her resolution will mainly serve as a reiteration of the sheriff’s proposal.
“I think some good ground work has been laid and right now we’re working on letting the delegation know what’s happening here in Duval County by supporting the sheriff,” said Jenkins. “People typically think [prostitution] is isolated to Philips Highway, but it’s happening all over and we want to let the people who are involved in it know we will not tolerate it here any longer. It’s destroying neighborhoods.”
In preparing local legislation, Jenkins has asked Peggy Sidman from the General Counsel’s Office to talk to representatives from the judiciary, namely Circuit Court Judge Jean Johnson who previously mounted a rehabilitation program for former prostitutes, while researchers in the Council’s office look to see what other municipalities have done to address the problem.
“I definitely would like to see us get more aggressive in putting a stop to this,” said Jenkins, who referenced Tampa as a city where the cars belonging to men who have solicited prostitutes are impounded until fines are paid.
Jenkins added it would be important to see what is currently happening to “johns” who are arrested in Jacksonville.
“We need to find out what we’re doing and what we’re not doing,” she said. “I’d like to see these guys pay the maximum fine every time. They need to pay for what they’re proliferating.”
Jenkins said the money collected could be used to reestablish a program similar to Johnson’s, which had an alternate funding source.
“From what I understand it was doing a lot of good,” she said. “I believe it could be a positive step in cleaning up this problem.”
Jones concurred.
“I think we’re doing the right thing in letting people know this is a problem we need to be paying closer attention to,” said Jones. “With proper treatment, we can show these women that there is an alternative to the way they are living their lives.”
Jenkins, who said she plans to meet with Rutherford to see what else can be done by the Council, said another subcommittee meeting will be held within a few weeks.