John school: An effective education?

By  Evgeniya Kulgina

During a recent prostitution sweep by the Ottawa police, 11 people were arrested on prostitution-related charges. Five of them were released because they qualified for the Pre-Charge Diversion “john school” program. John schools have been around in Ottawa for some time, but there are no official studies on how effective they are in fighting prostitution. OffCentre’s Evgeniya Kulgina discussed the issue with Ottawa Police sergeant Jim Elves.

John school is designed to educate men charged for soliciting prostitution (or “johns”) about the harms of prostitution.

Started in Hintonburg in 1996, the program has since become citywide. While it’s unclear how the program has impacted the community, Ottawa Police sergeant Jim Elves says the schools are needed to fight prostitution.

“We ask john school participants to fill out forms at the end of the program,” said Elves. “The results of the surveys make it very clear that the if the participants had all the information they received in john school before, they wouldn’t pick up a prostitute.”

The one-day program targets first-time offenders, as an alternative to criminal charges. To qualify, the johns must be over 18, without any criminal record, and they must also admit responsibility for soliciting prostitutes. The fee for the program is about $500. Sometimes the fee can be reduced, Elves says, but decisions about lowering the fees are made rarely and on a case-by-case basis.

While there are no studies about how effective the program is, Elyes says participants have given the program good reviews.

“On the surveys, many johns write that they found the information very enlightening and that they had no idea about the effects of prostitution,” said Elves.

Most john school students are men between 30 and 40 years old, and Ely says they come from a variety of social backgrounds.

“Some of them are on social assistance, some are qualified professionals with a degree.”

During the day at john school, the “students” are shown several sides of prostitution.

“We have a crown attorney, a public health professional, community activist, and a recovered prostitute-slash-drug dealer coming in to talk about the effects of prostitution,” said Elves.

And although there is no official research on the effect of john schools in Ottawa, Elves says the Ottawa police unofficial study shows that the recidivism rate among johns who attended the school is lower than five per cent.

However, it’s hard to draw conclusion from the police study. Frédérique Chabot, women’s outreach coordinator with the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, says that although the recidivism rate among johns after graduating from john schools is minimal, the schools are still just a drop in the ocean in the issue of fighting prostitution.

“They are only catching very small percentage of people that consume sex commercially, and then they never get on the radar again,” said Chabot.

“It doesn’t mean that [the johns] don’t do it again. It just means we haven’t caught that many ourselves,” said Elves.