Introduction

Much about prostitution and sex trafficking remains a mystery to those of us who have never personally experienced such tragedies.  Perhaps we shake our heads or look the other way when we see a woman walking the streets. We may even assume she chose to be there. What we may not pause to think about are the drivers that force most women to the streets. From childhood sexual abuse, to addiction and distorted views of self-worth, women who have found themselves in prostitution did not get there alone. There are many forces that send a woman to the streets and it will take many forces to help her recover and find her way home.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department estimates that more than 1,100 people were arrested in Nashville in 2010 on charges of prostitution and solicitation (NPR, 2011). According to the Nashville Task Force on Prostitution, two million women are believed to be working as prostitutes in the United States (Murphy, 2010). The figures should disturb any caring community but the tragic personal stories behind the numbers should outrage us all. Too many women, for a number of reasons, find themselves in prostitution, addiction and incarceration. The National Reentry Source Center says recovery from incarceration is often hampered by a lack of housing, meaningful employment and reentry services from prison.

There are women like Kay, who fled to the streets after suffering sexual abuse at the hands of her step-father. In an interview at the Tennessee Prison for Women, Kay described the life that followed her as being filled with drug abuse, prostitution, incarceration and incredible self-loathing. Still, Kay considers herself among the lucky, she survived. Some of her friends did not. Many women in prostitution are raped on the streets; they are beaten, targeted by police, hauled to jail and, in some cases, murdered.

 

A Nashville program has set out to help women like Kay. The Magdalene program has assisted more than 100 women with turning their lives around since it was created in 1997. Other Nashville programs based in the community and in prison focus on women who have been abused and struggle with addiction. These programs offer housing and employment training, two critical components to recovery and reentry. But there are no reentry services at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville that specifically target women seeking to heal from the scars of prostitution and trafficking.

 

 

 A supportive program will help to ensure transformative changes through planned reentry from prison back into the community and will enhance a woman’s opportunities for success. Women will lead successful lives upon release from the Tennessee Prison for Women by becoming a part of the Magdalene community of women. Magdalene is a residential program for women who have survived lives of prostitution, trafficking, addiction and life on the streets. For two years, women are offered housing, food, medical and dental services, therapy, education and job training, free of charge.

In 2013, the Tennessee Department of Correction, began a partnership with the Magdalene community of Nashville to form a reentry program that includes treatment and  group counseling. The hope is that women will be paroled into the Magdalene program upon release from prison. When women are safer, entire communities are safer. A loving community that nurtures its members creates value and self-worth.

 

In the video clip above, Rev. Becca Stevens, Founder of the Magdalene program discusses Magdalene on the Inside with women incarerated at the Tennessee Prison for Women.