Petition seeks to free wrongfully convicted trans activist Monica Jones
A petition by the Sex Workers Outreach Project is calling for the release of Monica Jones. Jones, who is a trans and sex workers rights activist and student at Arizona State University, was profiled and falsely arrested through a prostitution diversion program called Project Rose.
The petition calls for not just Jones’ release, but to put an end to Project Rose.
Since 2011, Phoenix police, prosecutors, and professors from the Arizona State University (ASU) School of Social Work have been collaborating on a program titled Project ROSE (Reaching Out to the Sexually Exploited). Over two weekends per year, up to 125 police officers detain community members that are suspected of being sex workers. Even though the police and Project ROSE founders state that the individuals apprehended are not technically arrested, the Phoenix ACLU has stated otherwise-they are handcuffed and brought to the Project ROSE command post and are confined to a room to speak with a Project ROSE volunteer and a city prosecutor.
In addition to Arizona possessing some of the nation’s toughest laws that lend themselves to racial profiling, Trans women of color in the state are increasingly profiled as sex workers, and then jailed with men.
View and sign the petition here.
Sex workers and other minorities are being exposed to increased pressure, racial profiling and arrests. Should sex work be legal in the country?
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