Prostitution Will No Longer Be Prosecuted In Manhattan, DA Says

NEW YORK, NY — Manhattan will no longer prosecute people for prostitution and unlicensed massage, the district attorney announced Wednesday, handing a victory to advocates who have pushed for years to decriminalize sex work.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced the new policy in court, asking a judge to dismiss more than 900 such cases from past years.

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Vance also moved Wednesday to dismiss more than 5,000 cases in which people were charged with "Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution" — a state law repealed in February and known as the "walking while trans" ban, which critics said encouraged police to target transgender people.

"Over the last decade, we’ve learned from those with lived experience, and from our own experience on the ground: Criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer and, too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers," Vance said in a statement.

Many of the cases dismissed this week date back to the 1970s and 1980s, which Vance called "a relic of a different New York."

Vance did not say whether soliciting prostitutes would still be criminalized. Elizabeth Nolan Brown, a reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason, said the office would indeed continue to prosecute customers, and criticized Wednesday's move as a half measure.

Before Wednesday, the policy in the Manhattan D.A.'s office had been to dismiss prostitution cases after the person being charged had completed counseling sessions with a social service provider.

The Manhattan dismissals follow similar actions by top prosecutors in Queens and Brooklyn, which both followed the "walking while trans" repeal.

Vance's decision was hailed by Abigail Swenstein, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Exploitation Intervention Project, who said prosecutors had "listened to and acted on the knowledge gained from speaking to advocates and most importantly, survivors and those with lived experience as sex workers."

"Countless sex workers, those profiled as sex workers, and trafficking victims have suffered under the weight of convictions and warrants," Swenstein said in a statement. "These perpetual punishments extend into family and immigration court, and impact our clients’ ability to find stability through housing and employment."

Swenstein argued that the state should still pass legislation to fully decriminalize sex work and expunge the criminal records of people convicted of prostitution-related crimes.

Cities such as Baltimore and Philadelphia have also moved recently to stop prosecuting sex workers, heeding calls from activists. Most candidates running to replace Vance as district attorney have likewise pledged not to prosecute prostitution, the New York Times reported Wednesday.