The program former Metro station manager Sharon Waters will participate in is the only diversion program offered through the D.C. court system for people arrested on prostitution charges.
Angel’s Project Power director Jacqueline McReynolds said the program averages about 45 enrollees at any time, including those who tested positive for drugs at the time of their arrest and must submit to inpatient treatment.
“We offer life skills classes, anger management classes, health and wellness classes,” McReynolds said.
“We teach them how to deal with all kinds of addiction, because prostitution is an addiction as well,” she said. “Sex is an addiction as well.”
Diversion agreements generally allow defendants to avoid criminal charges if they complete the program.
McReynolds said Project Power, which she established in 2003, has about a 30 percent success rate.
“Thirty percent complete the program and we don’t see them again,” she said. “About 70 percent we do see again.”
