Anna Green, who you may remember from her stint at the REST shelter and her one year prison sentence for prostitution in October, must have been paroled in March, as we predicted, because she was arrested on March 22 for prostitution near the intersection of Sheridan and Wilson. What's news to us is that this is Anna's 300th arrest! An article on Medill Reports Chicago explores the revolving door of prison for sex workers:"Harold Pollack, co-director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, said the criminal justice system isn’t well suited for handling people with serious drug problems or mental illness. Violent crimes are straight forward with straight forward consequences – repeat offenders end up in state prisons. 'The system is geared to that,' he said. But a sex worker can have any number of run-ins with the law and never end up in serious trouble."
It would be great if Anna could take advantage of the numerous rehab programs available to her to address her needs.
For those who are interested in attending the case for Anna's latest arrest, we encourage you to join the court advocates. The next hearing is set for May 6th at the Cook County Court House located at 26th and California. Please contact the 23rd District Community Policing office at 312-744-0064 for further information.
UU Note: We aren't the only ones noting Anna's arrest record. So does a national gossip blog.
When I clicked on the Medill link, there's a story on the same page about a program specifically for women getting out of prison who have drug/prostitution problems. It's all about rehabilitating them, getting them clean and sober, and helping them start a new life, off the streets. If only Anna had the willingness to get into something like that....
ReplyDeleteYes, she needs access to a rehab program --as if Genesis House & Shelter for getting prostitutes off Uptown streets hasn't been down the block for 15 years.
ReplyDeleteBTW, according to your Alderman Shiller, you are not supposed to call her a prostitute. According the alderman, no public meetings with the police can take place unless we all agree to call our ladies and gentlemen of the evening "sex industry workers." And the first meeting will have to be spent discussing terminology instead of problem solving the ANOV or criminal complaints.
Been there. Done that. It's a stalling technique she uses when large crowds appear at CAPS meetings to discuss crime problems. She hopes that if she can make several meetings pass without getting the substance of the issue, everyone will just go away.
That's her theme up here: Practice white flight. Just go away.
Anna is housed in Uptown by shelter and transitional housing programs. Why can't criminal housing ordinance be used in housing to force them to stop housing felons who continuously commit crimes in or around their building? Even CHA scattered site townhomes have be drug into housing court and torn down for providing criminal housing.
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't the 23rd District Police Department pursuing this claim against her provider? That is why the CAPS office must provide a housing coordinator to the community and why that housing coordinator has access to criminal arrest reports.
Genesis House is no longer in business. The executive director, Patti Buffington, was sentenced to a year in prison for embezzeling funds from this organization. She was charged with looting $479,000 from the charity.
ReplyDeleteShe is eligible for parole on July 26, 2010.
Speaking as one who lives across the street from one of Anna's favorite outdoor trysting spots, I spent the majority of last summer looking out my front window, or being woken up at 3am, by Anna turning tricks and being rewarded by smoking crack with her john. NOT a pretty sight and not an experience that I want to repeat this year. I hope for her sake that she receives treatment and changes her life, but most of all, I just want her out of here. At what point does the system look at someone with 300 arrests and say "enough!"?
ReplyDeleteTell her what she's won Helen!
ReplyDeleteI knew that the Genesis House director, who lived around 6000 N Sheridan Rd, was caught misappropriating city money when she stuck her hand in the cookie jar to pay for vacations with her boyfriend and $1000 haircuts. I did not know that every one of the Genesis Homes was closed because of it.
ReplyDeleteBut, there are plenty of other similar programs in the neighborhood.
Besides, do the programs not work for her or does she not work at getting into or trying to succeed in the programs.
And, who said she is mentally ill? There are laws judges follow to determine if a person is not cupable for committing crimes because they are mentally ill. I forget which standard Illinois uses but it is always some variation of being so impaired by a mental disability that they did not know 1) the nature of the act they were doing, 2) they could not comprehend whether the act was right or wrong, or 3) they knew it was wrong but lacked the capacity to control their actions.
She could not have been found guilty in those criminal convictions had she met any of those mental illness tests because the judge must make that determination when mental illness is used as a defense.
There are alot of people in Uptown that are routinely allowed to commit crimes by our police because our police blow it off saying that the person is mental. First of all, that is not a determination for the police to make. That is a judge's job. Second, there aren't that many people who are this mentally ill. Just getting a disability check for a mental illness is not sufficient evidence of to prove that a person is that mentally ill. A lot of people get adjudicated disabled by mental illness because it (like AIDS) is one of the automatic qualifying listing categories disability lawyers and SSI hearing judges like to slot applicants into so that they can benefits without going to trial to prove up a another non-listed form a disability.
"ANNA",
ReplyDeleteor whatever name he is going by at the moment needs to be forcibly institutionalized.
Not only for his safety, but for society.
In this disturbing, and rather tough to figure out 'social experiment' we've come to know as the 46th Ward, It's alarming how such a relatively small area can be a text book for so many social ills.
ReplyDeleteThey thrive up here.
There's crime in every Ward, but there's SO much going on up here it's bewildering.
But wait a minute.....isn't the 46th Ward RICH in Social Services?
I think on some level, crumbling infrastructure, vacant store fronts, and lack of a 'leadership connection' allow this kind of thing to thrive.
I believe in the approach taken by Nevada and the Netherlands when it comes to prostitution.
ReplyDeleteGet them off the streets and into a brothel. Reduces disease, cuts down on crime and cleans up the streets.
Since were such a hotbed of social experiments, why don't they try opening a brothel.
What people seem to be missing is that Anna is a hardcore drug addict. She sells herself to obtain crack cocaine. She's also a part-time dealer.
ReplyDeleteYou can't tell me that she'd be living like this if she ever managed to beat her addiction.
Maybe a court-ordered year or so in rehab would do her some good. She sure doesn't seem to be learning anything from being arrested or being in prison.
Really, 300 arrests in 10 years. She basically spends a month every year just getting arrested, and that doesn't take into account the many, many months she's been off the streets due to incarceration. What a horrible life, both for Anna and for the community she inflicts herself on.
When your behavior gets you kicked out of Cornerstone, that's saying something.
Cornerstone recommends the talking cure:
ReplyDelete“She probably needs to tell her story in a friendly environment where she can draw out her demons,” [Cornerstone Community Outreach director Sandy] Ramsey said.
We had brothels. The Miriam-Malden in older days. And the U-Haul. And the Sheridan Hotel.
ReplyDeleteWe had a Red Light District with legalized prostitution. Just look back several years at Broadway Avenue and the Montrose Bird Sanctuary when Joseph DeLopez was 23rd District Police Commander.
They didn't work out so well.
We have a low-cost disease prevention program for prostitutes. Anyone can stop by the bars on Halsted or the Human Services Community Outreach van parked on Broadway across from the alderman's office for free, taxpayer provided condoms. They are resold for a few drinks or getting-high bucks to the local sex industry workers. It is done all the time.
We have a transitional shelter for prostitutes. It's run by Emmaus Ministries by Wilson and Sheridan.
Maybe I have standards, but I wouldn't sleep with her for free if she were the last woman on Earth!
ReplyDeleteAnd where are the 300 (or so) men?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it take two to tango (or whatever)?
As a famous social activist reminded us in print many years ago:
"She does not send for the men; they come to her."
I'll go way out on a limb here, but I'm guessing that not all of Anna Green's arrests are for prostitution. We should all be concerned about anyone who has had 300 arrests.
ReplyDelete