Shawna is a resident in Chicago’s Genesis House residential program, a facility specializing in working with women who have prostituted. Genesis House is one of the few programs in the United States that focuses on women who have prostituted. Many of the women who participate in the residential program have been mandated to the program for a specified amount of time in lieu of serving time behind bars.

Q: Are you from Chicago?

Yes.

Q: How did you get to Genesis House?

Umm. Prostitution.

Q: When did you come to the residential facility?

In May, the third week of May.

Q: How did you hear about Genesis House?

Through publications and them distributing the condoms. About four years ago. And then when I got incarcerated and was comin’ out. They had a person come in and speak to the ladies in there.

Q: But that was after you already knew about them?

Yeah, I had known about them.

Q: I there another program in Chicago that offers similar services?

Not that I know of. This program is very unique. Every other program I know of deal with drug addiction.

Q: How did you first get involved with prostitution?

I was a runaway at the age of 13 and I had to take care of myself. And I was introduced to prost by older men.

Q: How so?

Older men just took a liking, a liking for me because I was a big girl for my age. We used to exchange money for sex. “Sugar daddies” as you call them.

Q: Have you also had experiences with drug addiction or drug use?

Yes. I started getting high off crack-cocaine at 19.

Q: Is that how you initiated your drug use or had you used other drugs before?

It initiated with marijuana use, but it wasn’t, it was social, it wasn’t… I mean, I tried drugs, but I never liked them before crack.

Q: Did you start with cocaine or crack?

I started with cocaine. I would cook it up and just smoke it- cocaine. Again, crack came out later, a couple months after. It was ’89.

Q: Cocaine, that was a drug that stuck? The crack?

Yeah. The cocaine was stuck. I used c for two months, two, two months, after that, I got incarcerated for armed robbery for ten and a half years.

Q: Was that a way to get money for drugs or was it related to your drug use?

It was a way to get money at the time.

Q: Did you use while you were in prison?

No.

Q: And then you came out in the early ‘90’s?

Right. In prison I didn’t address any drug addiction issues because I didn’t think I was an addict. I had just started using for two months. I didn’t address the issues. And the same person use again, that’s what happened, when I was released, I picked back up.

Q: How did that go?

I was released in ’91. I stayed clean, away from drugs for five months. I mean, I picked back up out there.

Q: Did anything happen or it just…

Oh, it was messed up. I had addiction and I had four, I had five children, which their father was also a drug addict and his mother was an alcoholic and there was one bedroom, aha… I was living with them. It was me, her, her boyfriend, their father and my four children, small children.

It was a two bedroom apartment, but me and the kids’ father and kids was in one bedroom.

I continued to use and DCFS came and got my kids.

Q: And then, you had another prison term?

Not a prison term, but a jail term. But, in the process of all that, when they came and got my children in ’95, I went to treatment and then I stayed clean for a year. And I had got my children back, but during treatment I didn’t address any issues. I was in treatment playing around, I wouldn’t go down underneath. Social acceptability does not equal recovery.

Q: So what kind of program were you in for that year?

I wasn’t in for a year. I was in for thirty days and I stayed clean for a year. It was an intensive in-patient program for crack-cocaine.

Q: What happened once children moved back in?

By me not addressing any issues in treatment, I picked right back up. I started working, doing old time shifts, not staying connected and I picked back up. And I had a daughter, I mean what really- I had a daughter, I mean what picked it back up- I had a daughter that’s 12 that ran away. And her boyfriend had her out there prostituting and using ecstasy and marijuana and alcohol. Her boyfriend was 25… And I picked back up.

I mean to say, now she has three years clean. She’s a product of City Girls. She’s 15 now. She has three years clean.

Q: From there, what happened?

I continued to use- until now.

Prostitution- I- there was a period where I stopped using but I was still prostituting. It was a means of support. Prostitution and drugs go hand in hand. It’s a cycle.

And… I decided… that I wanted to do something different with my life. I was tired. I wasn’t meant to be a prostitute or no drug addict- up and down the street all night long… doing any and everything to get one more…just to have that…

And I made a decision from there- I wasn’t mandated- at first- I came through here without going in jail. I decided I just wanted to come in. And they had a crisis center. I stayed three weeks and when I went to court, that’s when the judge mandated me. The west-side crisis center sent me here. At the crisis center they did all that- the evaluation. I was in court June 8 th and treatment June 9th.

After my thirty days, they came and picked me up. I been here ever since.

Q: Was it in the in-patient that you started addressing issues?

Yes! Because I was tired. I started addressing issues, but it was the process of being in Genesis House that made me aware that I needed to change my behavior. And when I got to treatment, the things looked different and my perception of life was different.

Q: Going through the crisis center helped you realize-

A whole lot. A whole lot… of things I needed to change in me. That I had a choice I didn’t have to be no drug addict, be no prostitute. They showed me unconditional love whereas I was isolated from my family. They gave me what I needed to complete treatment and follow and get something out of treatment and I did.

Q: At this point, what are you looking forward to when you finish here?

Well, Genesis House is a free program, so I am going to take advantage and go to school. I want my CADC in substance abuse [addiction counseling certification].

Q: How long is the certification process?

Six months and I have to have three years clean. This program is up to 18 months, so when I leave, I should be looking at a career rather than just a job.

Q: Would you just find a program in the city to work at, or where would you go?

It really don’t matter where I go as long as I am able to give back what was given to me. But in the end, I want to make my own recovery home.

[ice cream truck passes in background]

Q: Genesis House and a place in Baltimore are the only two programs I have come across so far that specialize in helping women who have prostituted-

And a lot of our programs are not free anymore, here in Chicago. I don’t know about anywhere else, but they either want a medical card or insurance- some type of insurance.

And if there is free- which is Haymarket Interventions and Women’s Treatment- they got the longest waiting list. You gone and killed yo’self by the time you get in there, you know?

Q: For the most part, is it pretty hard to get a treatment slot?

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And I mean, by them cutting so many funds, what is a drug addict going to- and public aid, they done cut medical- you can’t win.

Oh it’s real hard to get into drug treatment now. When I first got into drug treatment, most treatment centers had a certain amount of free beds. The length of stay was longer, too. But now, even programs that were long-term have cut back at least 90 days. So long-term now is 90 days, 28 days, that’s it. Recovery don’t want you to go to ‘em. You got to pay.

Q: Did you ever inject?

No! No, just smoking.

Q: How do you think Chicago is handling the drug problem overall?

They dealing more jails. And even in jail, you have to be mandated to get into they’ treatment program- in jail! It’s crazy.

Q: Are many people in the programs in jail? Are there a lot of programs?

There’s one program. And it’s a Haymarket now, a Haymarket drug center. And you have to be mandated to get in there. There used to be a time, you could just send a referral over there and say that you need help, and they come get you, but now you have to wait to be mandated. If I could have been mandated in jail when I came home, I wouldn’t a had to do treatment. I was putting referrals in and they was telling me I had to wait and see the judge.

Most of the places that come into jail are drug-related. Now, they’re making prostitution a felony. And the one’s they arresting for prostitution are drug addicts. Genesis House is only one place. You can get mandated here, but this place only holds 20 beds, what they going to do with the rest of the sistah’s? It’s crazy.

Q: A lot of the women also prostituting, did they have addictions?

Yeah, most of the prostitutes that come in jail are drug-addicted. Most of the cases in DCFS, it’s drug addiction. I don’t know about nowhere else, but I know that… in the… in the black race, most of the problems going on are drug-related. Now babies are getting on drugs, at 12 and 13. Mine was 12. They be locked up, smoking marijuana, selling drugs. Everything is drug-related now.

And they really don’t know how to service us, to teach how, you know it’s crazy- they just lock you up… and that’s it. For those that’s fortunate to get the drug, the drug treatment, that’s alright. But what about those one’s that done kil’t somebody and spend the rest of their life in prison because they done something stupid on drugs?

Q: At this point, if you couldn’t be at Genesis House, what would you be doing?

I don’t know. Maybe… I don’t know. All I know is that I made a decision to do something different and by God’s grace I landed here. It probably would have continued, because even though I wasn’t using, I was prostituting. But that’s how I used to mask those feelings of prostitution- by getting high. Even when I wanted to stop, I couldn’t. I had to deal with that. By this being a free program, I don’t have to prostitute to get money. So I don’t have to worry about getting high. I can work on me. So I don’t have to go through those things again.