This is Rev. Becca Stevens, who founded the Magdalene program for survivors of addiction, abuse and prostitution in Nashville, Tennessee.
Why do women prostitute themselves?
The article I just read titled “For Prostitutes, An alternative” uses the backdrop of Nashville and talks about millions of women who prostitute themselves and their drug addictions, etc.
One afternoon in February when the vice squad went out on an undercover search looking for prostitutes, they almost immediately found Brittany Messina–a 21-year-old prostitute. She’s been arrested four times for prostitution in the last five years. The police found her on a forlorn stretch of Dickerson Pike, home to low-slung motels and bail bond joints.
It’s the strip where prostitutes can easily be found walking. Nashville has arrested more than 1,100 people for prostitution and solicitation in the year!
Maybe someday Messina will decide she will want to get her life together and clean up. And if she does, there’s a program in Nashville that can help and many other programs that are more than happy to help but that’s if she wants the help.
No one can force anyone to change.
The program in Nashville is called Magdalene. It was founded by Becca Stevens, an Episcopal priest who grew up in Nashville and who had been abused as a child. Magdalene is a two-year private residential rehab center for women with criminal histories of prostitution and drug addiction.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135633315/magdalene-program
In my opinion I think women do not become prostitutes because they want to. They become prostitutes for many reasons, for example they may have been sexually assaulted or abused in the past, etc.
These women become so desperate to the point they are willing to give there bodies away to a random person for money. It is sad because no one should want that. When we govern ourselves we have a choice, but sometimes as citizens we feel like we are trapped.
We should always keep in mind that we have a choice. We can better ourselves and our past isn’t a reflection on us. Good citizenship is when we recognize someone is crying out for help and give them the help they need.
