Ayanna Pressley Continues Criminal Justice Reform Work With Landmark Legislation to Decriminalize Sex Work

While so much of the country’s politicians are concerned with impeachment, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) has laser focus. On Thursday morning, Pressley introduced a sweeping resolution of her view of what a criminal justice system could look like. It’s called The People’s Justice Guarantee with a broad range of proposals including a desire to decriminalize sex work.

The resolution came about as a collaboration among nearly two dozen grassroots organizations. Pressley said in a statement on Thursday:

“You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people. For far too long, those closest to the pain have not been closest to the power, resulting in a racist, xenophobic, rogue, and fundamentally flawed criminal legal system. The People’s Justice Guarantee is the product of a symbiotic partnership with over 20 grassroots organizations and people impacted by the discriminatory policies of our legal system. Our resolution calls for a bold transformation of the status quo – devoted to dismantling injustices so that the system is smaller, safer, less punitive, and more humane.”

In the resolution, TPJG calls for reducing the number of people incarerated by “decriminalizing sex work by removing criminal and civil penalties related to consensual sex work and addressing structural inequities that impede the safety, dignity, and wellbeing of all individuals, especially those most vulnerable to discrimination on the basis of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, and citizenship status.”

The resolution is incredible reading because it spends nearly the first dozen pages outlining how the current criminal justice system incarcerates so many people, leading the highest incarceration rates in the world.