Policy

Texas May Stop Charging Prostitutes as Felons

Prison overcrowding has the state reconsidering the option to prosecute prostitutes as felons after three misdemeanors

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Busted 32 times in 17 years for prostitution in Austin and other places, Beatryce Hall's rap sheet reads like a frequent-flier ticket for Texas prisons: 11 times in 11 years.

Many of those trips were courtesy of a 2001 Texas law that allowed prosecutors to charge prostitutes with a felony and send them to a state lockup after three misdemeanor prostitution convictions. The law was designed to clear up chronic problems with truck-stop and street hookers in Dallas.