Two years after Anita Johnson joined the Waco Police Department in , she stood on the street with pimps and prostitutes, sweaty and dirty, looking for clients.
She was still a cop, though. She remembers an interaction with a young, handsome and nervous military man. John schools give first-time offenders the chance to expunge their solicitation records by attending a class. The first school was created in San Francisco in the s, and the programs have since spread unevenly across the country. Texas also has john schools in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. Since , a state law has regulated the schools.
Any county or city can create one as an alternative to fines or incarceration. Johnson says she worked undercover for several years before she knew what a john school was. One day, she saw a television show about a San Francisco program. Though some critics question the effectiveness of the schools, advocates say statistics show they work. A study funded by the federal Department of Justice reported that the john school in San Francisco had hosted 5, men between and Recidivism fell to 4.
The Waco john school boasts a recidivism rate of 2. DePaul University professor Jody Raphael, 71, has dedicated her work to the study of prostitution and sex trafficking. Johnson has spent most of her year career with the Waco Police Drug Enforcement Unit, specializing in prostitution stings.
Her average day used to look like this: Before a sting, Johnson mowed the lawn for hours, making sure to get as grimy and unkempt as possible to play the part of a drug-addicted prostitute later that night. She would stand on a sidewalk, waiting for johns to come shopping. Once that requirement was met, Johnson gave a signal to a partner, and the arrest was made. Now Johnson also trains people on how to run their own john schools. Embassy of Hope offers assistance to prostitutes through counseling and life skills classes.
