Source: Reuters UK
By: Company Press Release
(DENVER, CO) — It probably won’t hurt the rating of the TV networks, but the city of Denver’s official cable channel is likely to get a boost in viewers when it starts its "sin bin" program featuring mugshots of prostitutes and their clients, or "johns."
The idea is to shame the women and their clients. "If we can’t convict you to get you to change your ways, maybe we can embarrass you and get you to change your ways." Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said earlier this week in announcing the program.
The idea of a highly public "sin bin" arose out of complaints by residents in an area near the state Capitol who told of seeing prostitutes and their clients in alleys and conducting steamy liaisons in cars, Webb’s spokesman, Andrew Hudson, said on Friday.
He added that the mugshots will be obtained from police who take them routinely when prostitutes and their clients are arrested, but only pictures of people convicted will be shown when the program starts airing on local channel 8 on July 25. The photos will also be featured on the city’s Web site at Denvergov.org.
Webb said the driving force behind the move came from members of a group called the Unsinkables Inc., named after Denver resident and socialite Molly Brown who kept her calm during the sinking of the Titanic.
Members of the group had complained about prostitutes operating in the area near Brown’s former home.
But Denver prostitute Anna Mitchell, who was sentenced to one year in jail earlier in the week, said the "sin bin" would not stop her plying her trade when she gets out. "Shaming has never done anything for anyone who has nowhere to go," she told the Denver Post.
