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Thursday, September 3, 2009
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Volume 94 | Issue 5
Cloudy 94° / 69°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Program keeps area prostitutes ‘off the streets’ BY CHRIS SPEIGHT
1,400
Senior Staff Writer
Prostitutes have found sanctuary within a Dallas-Fort Worth area treatment program. In an approach that allows prostitutes to choose between treatment or jail time, leaders of the program said it has been successful in deterring prostitution. “In the first year there are 10 girls who completed the treatment program and nine of the 10 remain off the streets,” said Martha Felini, assistant professor of epidemiology at UNT Health Science Center. “That 90 percent rate right now has been untouchable in any other diversion program that we know of across the country.” The police program is called Prostitute Diversion Initiative. Officers in the Dallas Police Department are working in conjunction with UNT’s Health Science Center, the Dallas County Sheriff’s department, Hospice and local courts in an attempt to stop prostitute victimization and gain intelligence on criminals. The program began in October 2007 and is the only police-led initiative in the country. “The main objective of the program is to approach prostitutes as victims rather than criminals,” said Sergeant Lewis Felini of Dallas police, the program’s creator. “When you approach them as victims you can bring a lot more resources to the street to help deal with the problem.” Not all prostitutes choose the treatment, however. Police arrest more than 20 each month, but only half opt for treatment, said Kim Leach, a spokesperson for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. “Some of them just say ‘This is all I know’,” Leach said. On the first Wednesday of every month, Dallas police set up a sting at four truck stops on the I-20
Prostitutes in DallasFort Worth area
24 to 26
Picked up by police each month
1/2
Choose program as alternative to jail time
90
Percent stay off the streets after completing the program
Read the editorial on the prostitute rehabilitation program Page 7
PHOTO COURTESY OF DALLAS COUNTY SHERIFF ’S DEPARTMENT
A prostitute apprehended by Dallas police waits to see a judge June 4 at a mobile command center in south Dallas. The woman was accepted into a treatment program partnering the UNT Health Science Center with area police and courts. corridor and a mobile command center close by, according to the Prostitute Diversion Initiative annual report. Prostitutes either voluntarily come in or are arrested. Once at the command center, they are asked about any criminal activity in the area and given food and clothing. Licensed social service workers and medical personnel collect their current medical condition,
mental health status and drug use history. After the initial analysis, police ask prostitutes to choose between a 45-day, in-patient treatment program or jail. The treatment program starts immediately. Those who choose to go to jail are asked again if they would like treatment after speaking with a judge. UNT’s role in this program is not on-site with the prostitutes.
Instead, UNT gathers all the data learned at the sting sight and processes it. “We do not interact with any of the prostitutes on any level,” Martha Felini said. “We are there simply for evaluative purposes. At the end of the night we get the data that is collected from this initiative and then we analyze it to assess priority needs of this population and to evaluate whether this program is working.”
Prostitutes are a vulnerable population and victims of many violent crimes in Dallas, including homicides, Lewis Felini said. Thirty-nine national highway serial killers have been profiled f rom in for mat ion ga ined through the program, Lewis Felini said. On the recovery side, Lewis Felini partnered up w it h Homeward Bound, a company providing drug and alcohol treatment. It had success taking prostitutes off the street and putting them through a program that helped them exit prostitution, he said. “They educated them, gave them job training, they’re out working on their own, sustaining themselves, a couple of them are married now and have kids,” Lewis Felini said. “We figured, why can’t we do this on a larger scale?” Martha Felini said the UNT Health Science Center is looking at moving beyond evaluative
research toward more health research from the prostitution lifestyle. “What are the risk factors for a prostitute getting cervical cancer?” she said, adding that the program could help find the answer. Prostitutes face 200 times the risk of a violent death than the general population, Martha Felini said. “Their longevity in life is much decreased and yet we know very little about this population primarily due to their high migratory status,” she said. Lewis Felini said he came up with the idea when he realized the methods Dallas police used to deal with prostitution weren’t effective, he said. “It’s been a revolving door,” he said. “We arrest the same girls over and over.”Martha Felini said. Research from this program shows there are more than 1,400 confirmed prostitutes in the Dallas area, Lewis Felini said.
New regents describe experience, aspirations BY CAROLYN BROWN
Senior Staff Writer
UNT’s Board of Regents has three new faces since Gov. Rick Perry appointed replacements for departing members. G. Brint Ryan, Steve Mitchell and Michael R. Bradford have joined the board and will serve until May 22, 2015.
PHOTO BY MELISSA BOUGHTON/PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of UNT’s new program, UNT Serves!, pose for a picture at their first meeting.
UNT offers students new ways to get involved in community BY A MBER A RNOLD Senior Staff Writer
The College of Public Affairs and Community Service has launched its new UNT Serves! program in an effort to get students living on campus more involved. The program is a Residents Engaging in Academic Living community on the fifth floor of Kerr Hall in the UNT Serves! wing. The program is beginning with 33 students and Tena Burley, the college’s director of development, for the College of Public Affairs and Community Service, said she hopes the numbers will grow as the program progresses. Students will not only actively engage in projects together, but also take what the college calls
“discovery classes,” Burley said. “The program gives the students more of a chance to comfortably work with other students that they know and go to school with,” Burley said. “The people that are in community service have a heart for it, and this gives them a chance to do it all the way through school.” Brenda McCoy, a rehabilitation and social work addictions lecturer, said the classes offered are entry-level freshman classes and will not be like traditional classes taught by one professor in a classroom. All classes are team-taught by two professors and will be held in the common room of Kerr where UNT Serves! is housed. McCoy will teach the civic engagement discovery class
alongside department chairwoman Linda Holloway. McCoy said the classes, by design, are much smaller and are very service-learning based and hands-on. “This is indicative of UNT’s new direction of teaching,” she said. “We really want to engage students from the first breath in the learning process, so that they can feel a greater sense of attachment to UNT, fellow students and also their professors.” The program and discovery classes will not just be about encouraging students to volunteer. It is also about finding out what students are passionate about and getting them involved, McCoy
See PROGRAM on Page 2
G. Brint Ryan G. Brint Ryan founded Ryan Inc., a leading tax services firm in Dallas, and is now its CEO and managing principal. He was named a distinguished alumnus for UNT earlier this year. Ryan left Big Spring to attend UNT, where he received a bachelor’s and master’s of science degrees in UNT’s fiveyear accounting program in 1988. His relationship with UNT continued after graduation, as he served as chairman of UNT’s Accounting Advisory Board. He also donated $1 million to UNT in 2006 and another $1 million to UNT’s Dallas campus in 2009. UNT’s rigorous accounting program prepared him well for his career, he said, and he wants to give back to the university. “I owe a debt to the university and accounting department,” he said. Ryan said he believes UNT is positioned to be one of the
G. BRINT RYAN
STEVE MITCHELL
top schools in the nation, and he wants to be a part of its progress.
Steve Mitchell Steve Mitchell served as mayor of Richardson from 2007 to 2009 and has served on the Richardson City Council since 2005. He is a lead business systems analyst for Thomson Reuters, and he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in UNT’s fiveyear accounting program in 1985. During his time at UNT, Mitchell was heavily involved in campus activities, working as a freshman orientation leader and a resident assistant at Clark Hall among other activities. His involvement in campus leadership positions later inspired him to go into politics, he said. Mitchell wants to see UNT become a tier 1 school and is excited to be able to serve on the Board of Regents, he said. “It’s really an exciting time. I feel so honored and fortunate to have been able to serve in so many different capacities,” he said.
MICHAEL R. BRADFORD
Michael R. Bradford Michael R. Bradford is the Midland County Judge and an oil and gas producer. He is the president of the Natural Resources Foundation of Texas and chairman of the Conference of Urban Counties. He received his bachelorís and master’s degrees in business administration from Texas Christian University. Bradford grew up in Fort Worth, where he first became acquainted with the UNT Health Science Center. His work at the natural resources organizations also made him aware of UNT’s environmental science programs, he said. Bradford said he hopes the upcoming UNT law school will make a name for itself in new subjects such as artificial intelligence studies and Internet law. “We have the opportunity to take all the abilities of the chancellor and dean and create a new tradition,” Bradford said. He also hopes that UNT will continue expanding opportunities for people to earn college diplomas, he said.