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Bernie Carver, executive director of Positive Options, Referrals and Alternatives (PORA), said he's had brief, preliminary discussions with other agencies and parole officers, as well as Springfield Police Chief Don Kliment. He said the idea has been well received so far.

"There seems to be a fair amount of enthusiasm for it, but it will take a lot of coordination and a lot of pieces to fit together to make it come off. It will take some time, but I think it's much needed," he said.

"In Sweden, they have the approach of going after the customers, which I think is a very good idea. The people who do this (prostitution) do it because they are homeless or mentally ill or drug addicts. So I see all of it as a rape essentially where silence is purchased for drugs or money, and I think a lot more emphasis needs to be placed on the customer."

A school for the customers, or "johns," would be designed to educate first-time offenders about such issues as the legal consequences of prostitution; the health risks involved; the effects of prostitution on women, families and the community; how pimps recruit sex workers; sexual addition; and other matters.

"It's to rehabilitate people who are customers of prostitutes," Carver said. "Usually it involves different phases. Very often a police officer will address the group first and tell them how there will be increasing consequences to them if they keep doing what they're doing. There's a public health person involved who tells them the risk of engaging in this activity. The third part is survivors of prostitution talk to them and give them their perspective."

PORA helps women with a history of prostitution and exploitation by providing a residence for them, treatment programs, counseling, outreach, education and referrals. It also does outreach for sexually abused men.

In some communities with john schools, participation is voluntary or part of a diversionary program. In other words, johns can attend the school, usually a daylong or weekend class, in exchange for their arrest not appearing on their record.

Carver said he believes such a school would be difficult to pull off in Springfield without cooperation from other central Illinois communities, such as Decatur, Champaign and Peoria. Johns likely would pay a fee to participate, which would help cover the costs involved.

The john-school concept began in San Francisco in 1995, and more than 300 men participated the first year. Among communities that have john schools are Chicago; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Nashville, Tenn.; Fresno, Calif.; Tampa, Fla.; and St. Paul, Minn.

Kliment said he was not familiar with john schools until he spoke with Carver. He said he is open to the idea but is waiting to receive more information on it.

Kristen Houser, former president of the National Alliance To End Sexual Violence, is researching john schools for her master's thesis in public administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She said she is not sure john schools are a true deterrent because the men often have serious issues regarding sex and women.

Possible benefits of john schools are that they may deter some people, particularly if they are new to soliciting, and it does shed light on the problem for the public, she said.

"Recidivism rates are what's normally used, and since most johns aren't arrested anyway, there's really no good comparison group. The one study that was done that looked at recidivism rates among men who went through the program versus men who did not found that they were equal," she said.

Houser said it's important that communities require the johns to pay a fee that not only helps support the john-school program, but also goes toward initiatives to help prostitutes get the help they need.

"Regardless of what their intention is, every time these men buy a woman, they do emotional and psychological harm, if not physical harm, to her. Women in prostitution have huge rates of post-traumatic disorders. One of the reasons the drug and alcohol rates are so high is it's just numbing out what's being done to them," she said.

"Whether or not they intend to hurt them, I think many of them go in with the fantasy that she's there because she wants to be. Those things simply aren't true. I think that when communities recognize that harm by making these men help pay for helping these women get over what's been done to them, that's a good thing."

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