Texas May Stop Charging Prostitutes as Felons

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

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.