Jane is in her late 30s. If you met her, you'd probably think this thin and attractive woman with blond hair was much younger. A seemingly carefree person, she could be anyone's neighbor.
But just a couple of years ago, Jane was a prostitute working for a Salt Lake escort service. Until she entered a rehab program and got on the road to recovery, her everyday life was one of abuse, degradation, drug and alcohol addiction and hopelessness.According to Jane (not her real name), the only "escorting" that women working for "escort services" ever engage in is when they usher some strange man in and out of a hotel room for a 30-minute "date." Jane believes escort services are nothing more than fronts for prostitution - just a little bit more upscale than the more straightforward operators who ply their trade along some areas of State Street in the evenings.
The Salt Lake City Council is studying toughening its laws on sexually oriented businesses. In regard to the city's 12 escort services, the proposals currently on the table would include increasing the age of escorts from 18 to 21 (Jane notes that escort services aren't too picky about checking identification. She's worked with escorts as young as 14 - "amazing what a little makeup will do," she said), increasing fees paid by the services and restricting areas where escorts could legally operate - no place that has a bed, for example.
Although the measures are well-intentioned, they don't go far enough.
The abuse Jane suffered - typical of what goes on in the business - is almost too sickening to recount. Suffice it to say that she was beaten and raped on numerous occasions. There were times when she thought her life was in danger. Jane thinks her story is pretty typical of what happens to women who get tangled in the escort web.
Jane's road to prostitution began with the breakup of a marriage and a subsequent bare cupboard at Christmas. For many women, economic circumstances are often a catalyst for beginning a career as an escort.
"Nobody starts doing something like this thinking it's going to be a lifetime thing," Jane says. "You're just in a pinch and you need some money. And then you get kind of caught up in the money. A lot of them (escorts) have children and they were paying their rents and car payments, food . . . it's just survival."
The johns who use escort services might be interested in knowing that some of the services keep fairly detailed lists about each client, including his sexual preferences and how much money he normally spends on a date, Jane said. About half her customers were married. Although many of them professed great love for their spouses, none seemed too worried about any diseases they might contract from an escort.
Many escorts are only too happy to forgo protection during liaisons.
"A lot of times they (the `escorts') are too numbed up on alcohol or drugs or whatever they are doing," she said.
Although the money is good (several hundred tax-free dollars a night), life in the fast lane eventually catches up with most escorts. Jane was consuming two fifths of vodka per day before she sought help.
"I would come home from work, and, mind you, I would be driving and I would get home and I wouldn't remember how I got home," she said. "I'd get home and realize I was home and I'd literally crawl on the floor and I'd start dialing numbers."
Jane found help, but resources are often not available for other women in her situation. In addition to further restrictions on the activities of escort services, municipal and state leaders should fund programs to help women break out of the prostitution trap. Heavier penalties and rehabilitation opportunities for the johns who use escorts services are also needed.