Berkeley- Robyn Few, a former prostitute, heads up SWOP [The Sex Workers Outreach Project]. The group advocates greater rights for strippers and prostitutes, and it’s Few’s hope that the group can put a measure on the city’s November ballot calling for the decriminalization of prostitution in Berkeley as well as San Francisco. But Few doesn’t want to stop there. SWOP’s ultimate goal is to have a statewide decriminalization proposition on the California ballot in 2006.

Few, executive director for SWOP, along with 50 volunteers, is attempting to collect the 2,100 signatures needed to get the measure on the November ballot.

“This is an idea whose time has come,” Few said. “The public is tired of prostitutes being treated as second-class citizens. It’s time for us to wake up. We don’t have any money in this state. The police should focus on child prostitution rings and the illegal trafficking of women, not two adults having consensual sex.”

The proposal for the initiative was recently returned from the Berkeley City Attorney’s office because of its lack of clarity, but Few said she will be sending it back as soon as she rewords it. But, if adopted, the measure would not change state prostitution laws. It would still adhere to existing California laws, which state that prostitutes and solicitors caught in the act can be punished with a minimum of a warning to a maximum of one-year imprisonment. But under Few’s new measure, instead of receiving a hefty fine or jail time, Berkeley prostitutes would be given a ticket that would not go on their record, similar to a parking violation.

The measure also would require the city to encourage decriminalization statewide.

Few, a 45-year-old former prostitute, is currently serving a six-month sentence under house arrest after pleading guilty to a federal charge stemming from her involvement in an interstate prostitution circuit. It was after her arrest in 2002 that Few started the outreach project, modeling it after an Australian organization with the same name.

SWOP received some media attention last August when Few organized a demonstration in front of an Alameda County Superior Courthouse in support of Shannon Williams, a former Berkeley high school teacher who was arrested in a prostitution ring.

Few said decriminalization would make it easier for prostitutes to go to the police when they are victims of violent crimes. The state would also save money by jailing fewer prostitutes, she said.

Few said that the biggest winner in decriminalization of the sex trade would be the state of California.

Although Few said she does not want to see prostitution legalized, she said she admires the culture of countries such as the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal and the sex trade is not stigmatized.

“Unlike in the States,” Few said, “the Dutch love their prostitutes and speak highly of them.”

But Dr. Davida Coady, executive director of Options Recovery Service, a Berkeley drug and alcohol recovery center, did not share Few’s enthusiasm for the prostitution profession.

“It’s not a glamorous life out there,” Coady said. “It’s a life of getting beat up, abused sexually and physically, and getting lif-threatening illnesses. And it mostly stems from drug addiction.”

And if Few’s measure passes, it would be “a great triumph for the pimps,” Coady said.

The measure would increase the number of prostitutes in Berkeley, and hinder the police’s ability to intervene, according to Coady.

One ex-prostitute, who declined to give her name, came to Coady three years ago after being busted for prostitution and drugs. She is now training to be a drug and alcohol counselor.

Few’s measure could backfire against the very prostitutes she intends to save, she said.

“If I never got busted I would still be out there,” said the anonymous ex-prostitute. “They’re saying it’s OK to be a prostitute. Prostitution is disrespecting yourself and other women.”

Still, Few said she remains confident that people will see the reasoning behind her measure.

“I believe if the people of California were given the chance to vote on this, we’d win,” Few said. “Decriminalization won’t be perfect, but it sure would be better than what we have now,” she said.

Councilman Kriss Worthington said he thought the measure had merit. “I believe most people in Berkeley think it’s unfair that it’s primarily the women who get arrested when they are trying to survive and their male clients typically are not,” he said.

But Councilwoman Betty Olds disagreed. She said that collecting enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot would be difficult. “I think it’s just foolish, and people in Berkeley won’t vote for it,” she said. Olds said if voters approved such a measure, Berkeley would become a destination for pimps and sex traffickers looking to exploit women. “You would have a cottage industry sprout up and prostitution would increase, and nobody wants a bordello on their block.”

Melissa Farley, a clinical psychologist, agrees, saying it was a myth that decriminalization would make prostitution safer. “Decriminalization would increase sex trafficking to the region and make it a magnet for pimps looking to exploit women,” she said.