Tucson is trying a new approach for dealing with the world's oldest profession.

It's based on the rules of supply and demand.

For several years, the city has offered counseling instead of jail to women arrested for prostitution. Starting in January, the city will offer the same program to johns, the men who solicit women for sex.

"We want them to think about the impact of their activities on their families, their communities and themselves," said chief city prosecutor Laura Brynwood. "I'm a big believer in education."

And there's something in it for the city.

The only charges that are more hotly contested than solicitation charges are DUIs. Many of those arrested have families and jobs, and they fight tooth-and-nail to keep something so embarrassing off their record.

"This is a population that understands the value of a clean criminal record," Brynwood said.

That makes prosecuting johns expensive and time-consuming for the city, but it also gives johns an incentive to choose diversion.

Instead of paying $200 and spending 15 days in jail, they can attend 12 group-counseling sessions and check in with a monitor for six months. At the end of the program, they will get a clean criminal record.

The johns will pay $510 to cover the cost of counseling and monitoring.

People who work with recovering prostitutes welcome the change.

"I've been trying to get the city to do it for years, and I'm really glad they finally are doing it," said Elaine Calco Gray, clinical director at Cactus Counseling, the organization that counsels prostitutes who choose diversion over jail.

The city also plans to expand the program for prostitutes. Until now, it only has been available to first-time offenders. But many women aren't ready to quit the life at the first arrest.

Just half of the women who start the program finish it.

So now the program will be available to any woman arrested for prostitution if she hasn't gone through the program before.

Unlike the johns, the prostitutes don't have to pay for their counseling.

"We certainly don't want them prostituting themselves to get money for counseling," Brynwood said.

The city prosecutor's budget includes $5,000 to pay for the program, which so far has been used by roughly 20 women a year. The cost of expanding the program will be covered by the fees paid by johns and other defendants.

The city has never studied how many women who complete diversion eventually are rearrested.

There were 259 people — johns and prostitutes — arrested on prostitution-related charges so far this year in Tucson. That's more than were arrested all of last year but far fewer than the 512 who were arrested in 2000, the year before the city started the diversion program for prostitutes.

Calco Gray, who developed the curriculum for the johns program, said she thinks it will be effective.

"When you do it and keep it secret, you don't have to deal with your shame," she said. "When you confront your shame, that's a big deterrent. People are going to have to define what drove them there."

The program will cover safety issues, including the risk of sexually transmitted disease, causes and effects of prostitution, the impact on families and the community and decision-making processes.

"They'll be talking about the consequences," said Michael Lowther, director of Southwestern Intervention Services, the group that runs most of the city's diversion programs and will administer the johns program. "What happened when your wife found out you were arrested and what the charge was? Do you realize you might have exposed yourself to HIV?"

That may sound like a good deterrent, but so was going to jail. Unlike prostitutes, who often are arrested again and again, most johns are first-time offenders, Brynwood said.

Men have a hard time hiding 15 days in jail from their families and employers, so they tend to learn their lesson the first time.

But Brynwood said she was impressed by a pilot program in Phoenix last year, and she wanted to give johns the same opportunities that most nonviolent, first-time offenders get.

Martha Perez Loubert is the diversion programs administrator for Phoenix. She started a diversion program for johns last year, and the city has made it one of the regular offerings.

They test the men before and after the one-day course, and she said they really do change their attitudes.

"They go in with the attitude that they are just doing their time to avoid jail, but they do learn something," she said.

Phoenix defendants pay $750 for the one-day, eight-hour course and get a clean record.

Perez Loubert said one of the most important parts of the program is when the men hear from recovering prostitutes.

"They tell them: 'This is how you made me feel. This is how I got into prostitution. This is what kept me there,' " she said. "They see them as human beings."

Tucson's program will include a similar session.

Perez Loubert said the program saved Phoenix $96,000 just in jail costs in 2005 and $117,000 through the end of November this year.

Neighborhood leader Oscar Bojorquez said prostitution and johns have a big effect on the Miracle Manor neighborhood, near Oracle Road and Miracle Mile.

Faced with increased police presence, much of the activity has moved off the main streets and into the heart of the neighborhood, he said, bringing with it drugs, crime and lower property values.

"We have people that can no longer walk in the neighborhood because they don't feel safe," he said.

He likes the idea of focusing on the johns. He thought publishing johns' pictures in the newspaper was a good deterrent, but he thinks counseling might work as well.

"Anything for rehabilitation and prevention is a positive," he said.

Jim Quinn vice president of the neighborhood association, agreed. "Counseling is a good start," he said. "Everybody makes mistakes. If they take that opportunity and then do it again, then hammer them."

On StarNet: Find more crime-related news including a slide show of Tucson-area sex offender absconders at azstarnet.com/crime

● Contact reporter Erica Meltzer at 807-7790 or emeltzer@azstarnet.com.

For more Arizona news, visit www.azstarnet.com or www.azfamily.com.

©The Arizona Daily Star, 2006