Decriminalizing prostitution could be the key to closing Rikers Island

A blue-ribbon panel’s proposal for closing Rikers Island claims there’s no room for hookers in the city’s jails of the future.

A report from the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform says Albany lawmakers should consider reclassifying prostitution as a civil offense rather than a criminal one, which would essentially let hookers off with a summons instead of sending them to jail.

“The modern thinking on this is that the defendants in prostitution cases, whether it’s around the world or around the corner, are victims,” commission chairman and former state Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said Sunday while formally releasing the report.

“They need help, those people, and the law enforcement have to get the real perpetrators of this, not the victims: the traffickers, whether it’s the pimp who is standing 10 blocks from here and doing this or whether it’s these big cartels who victimize somebody.”

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