The founder of this program is in the process of writing a detailed history of not only her life, but the history of this program. So if you wish more detailed information, just shoot us an email.
To give you an overview, back in 1984, this country found itself in the middle of what's now been called "Iran Contra". This intersected with what's now also been called the "Epstein scandal", which also has intersected the recent Diddy arrest. Many people think these cases aren't connected, but they are. Just as one can cross reference Jeanne Palfrey Black Book with Epstein's flight logs. At the same time, pimps were quite organized in the USA to the point where they'd have their yearly "trade convention" in Chicago at what was known back then as "Bishop Don Juan's birthday party" or as it evolved into the "Pimp 'N Ho Ball". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_Ball
Madams who were part of the group COYOTE, founded by Margo St. James, used to hold the "Whore's Ball" yearly on the same day as a means of protest to what has today the term has been coined as "sex trafficking". https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collections/martgo-st-james-5and-coyote
At the same time, legal brothels had just been formed in NV in 1974. These madams used to believe sex work, like any work, should be done freely, and the workers also not exploited, abused and/or trafficked.
That's why they worked to establish the decriminalization of prostitution in RI thinking this would help break the hold organized crime and/or pimps had over many in the industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Rhode_Island#:~:text=Prostitution%20was%20decriminalized%20in%20Rhode,only%20street%20solicitation%20remained%20illegal.
The backlash of this was that these madams who were trying to help what again today would be called "sex trafficking victims", and also to see sex work given the recognition of "work" like any other career, were all framed and subjected to high profile arrests on felony charges. This was done to try and turn them into informants as they did with Alex Adam's (who admitted this in her memoir). These women were given names by the media - our founder was dubbed "The High Tech Madam". https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-16-me-17443-story.html
To give context, this was also at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic for a community that generally had no health insurance, and because of being an underground community, it was difficult for outsiders to provide any type of education, intervention and/or care.
So these madams, who had been basically the only ones to provide support to this community, were suddenly facing not only years in prison, but also now being felons, were told they could no longer speak to anyone else in said community or they could be sent back to prison. This at the same time these madams were in the best positions to be providing assistance/education to those in the industry with respect to this epidemic.
We also felt it just plain wrong these madams were now facing prison time for simply trying to provide a safe place to work not only from pimps, but also at the very height of when serial killers were targeting us. Just to give you an idea - in LA at this time over 200 serial killers were targeting us while RI even had more than one serial killer targeting us. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/01/18/Murder-in-the-StreetsNEWLNLAs-serial-killers-make-1986-year-of-easy-prey/2782537944400/
Something had to be done, and done quickly. So on August 15, 1987, the 12 step program was born. This provided not only the guarantee all calls to the hotline were as confidential as those to any drug and/or rape hotline, but also allowed members of this community to provide assistance to their community without fear of being sent back to prison. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-29-va-50887-story.html
It also formed a group of advocates who just as AA and NA founders also knew the laws had to be changed with respect to how their members were treated, they knew laws had to be changed also so that anyone who was viewed as a "prostitute" back then was not also viewed in the eyes of the system as a "criminal" as was the case back then.
Up to this point, many rights were lost by virtue of being viewed as a "criminal". Knowing it was going to take decades, if ever, to see sex work decriminalized or even legalized, these members worked to see the Trafficking Act passed in 2000 - which was the first time Americans could receive assistance from the Office of Victim Services when raped, beaten, trafficked, or even murdered as previously any federally funded groups were unable to assist our community because of being "criminals".
Once federal money was now created to assist our community, George W. Bush swept into the issue by hijacking this money to the control of "faith based groups" in 2003. Thus began a time when these faith based programs who previously left us to die now all decided to jump onto the band wagon, but only to assist "victims".
Once the US reached the point where they were going to start programs much like how drug court was set up to help the addict, thus began a power struggle that AA and NA also suffered from when the government and the church decided to "take over".
We say this because the newly formed field of "recovery from alcoholism" found Bill Wilson being blacklisted from his own program, along with the original founding members giving way to the newly formed National Coucil on Alcoholism.
In time, Jimmy Kinnon, the founder of NA, was locked out of his own office, and the program also hijacked by the "recovery industry". A man named Bob Stone took over for Jimmy, and when he realized something was very wrong - well he was found dead wrapped in duct tape and the authorities said it was "suicide".
The fork in the road came when our founder was asked to help set up the first sex trafficking programs. The government however doesn't want to take a stance ANY sex work could be anything BUT rape from a legal perspective, and for reasons that go into espionage and world policies even, so she too found herself having this program "hijacked" out from under her as Bill Wilson and Jimmy Kinnon had once experienced.
At the same time, people were turning up dead in connection with the Epstein scandal, Iran Contra, Operation Dollhouse, and even the vying for control over the legal brothel industry in Nevada. This same target pointed itself at our founder who had to literally go "off the grid" for a time to save her life.
Vowing to be knocked down but not lost, she vowed she'd return once it was safe to do so. Since many of the people behind this are now dead, that time has come for the resurrection of the program as men and women are still going to jail/prison on sex work, and now sex trafficking (what used to be "madaming" and/or "pimping" is now "sex trafficking" and carrying a life sentence in some states) charges.
Technology has presented a huge challenge to maintaining the same "anonymity" once enjoyed by a world pre-internet and cell phones. So because of these issues possibly being life threatening for some members, we do not have "open" meetings like AA and NA now enjoy.
But we are still here offering our "experience, hope and strength" to anyone who has a desire to exit the industry. If you have that desire, please give us a call or an email and we'll provide you with the best help we can for your situation.
If you're unsure how effective we are as a program, a ten year study was done on us and proclaimed we were the most effective at providing long term recovery in the book published by Sharon Oselin, "Leaving Prostitution". https://tinyurl.com/bdejfstp
You may notice articles on us seemed to stop cold after 2007 because of a "blacklist" we were placed on by Sheldon Adelson. Now he's deceased, we hope the situation has changed as we embark upon a new chapter in our history and evolution.
