Archiving June 2nd: Decriminalization not Diversion

An account of the event held in McPherson Park on June 2nd, 2021

For June 2, 2021, I spearheaded the event: “Decriminalization not Diversion.”Law enforced diversion programs targeting sex workers and people who use drugs are infiltrating cities across America. Supposedly designed to refer them to social services and divert them into a productive life, diversion programs instead become another pipeline to incarceration.

Law enforced diversion programs often start out as “pilot programs” targeting certain zip codes before unrolling across entire cities. Take, for example, the relaunch of Police Assisted Diversion Program (PAD). A pre-arrest diversion program originally started in 2017, it was relaunched in 2019 with co-responder pilot programs targeted in zip codes that encompass Strawberry Mansion and Kensington, two severely under-resourced neighborhoods in Philadelphia. While Strawberry Mansion is primarily Black (94%), Kensington is multiracial with a white population of almost 50%. Further, Kensington is estimated to obtain the nation’s highest count of unhoused opioid users and the most visible drug market on the East Coast.

Project Safe, the second oldest harm reduction organization in Philadelphia, has been organizing in Kensington for the last 17 years with women and people on the queer spectrum who trade sex and use drugs. Through various outreach efforts, we hear testimonies of people experiencing police violence, institutional violence, and intra-communal violence. All three go hand in hand. Police cite community complaints as an excuse to harass unhoused sex workers and drug users. Social workers and medical staff use policing to stigmatize the same people which, in turn, adds to the trauma of impacted people and to the frustration of housed neighbors. The cycle is endless and repetitive and is further used as an excuse to rob neighborhoods of more resources. Syringe programs and community services are eroded in favor of "tough love" approaches that are presented as the only means to address problems of houselessness and drug use, fundamentally ignoring the blatant lack of success the “punishment model” programs have historically had.

It is in this context that I wanted to situate the events of June 2nd “Decriminalization not Diversion.” The purpose was to bring attention to two things: 1) that diversion does not work and 2) that full decriminalization is the answer. Through conversations with neighbors when encampments were due for eviction, it became clear that both housed and unhoused neighbors share this sentiment.

Law enforced diversion programs get used as an excuse to harass neighbors into enrolling into programs where resources do not exist. PAD and Project Dawn Court cite connecting participants to resources such as housing that does not exist. At the same time, there is an expectation that arrestees and defendants would stay off drugs and not engage in sex work. Unsurprisingly, this does not work. MAT programs are notoriously easy to get kicked out from and are not possible to complete when unhoused. In a city already experiencing high rates of unemployment, arrest records do not help. Added together, diversion programs set people up for failure. Either engage in criminalized activity for survival and risk arrest, or try and stay in programs that do not provide adequate resources, thereby risking criminalization again. Decriminalization of sex work and drug use resolves this by rooting out the criminalization. If people are engaging in any activity for survival, the threat of criminalization does nothing to deter them.

Further, criminalization sets up more barriers. People who lack resources are further barricaded away from resources such as housing and jobs due to their records. Decriminalization eradicates this barrier. In fact, it makes policing obsolete. Redirecting these funds to resources neighbors and communities are asking for allows for that revolving door of violence and incarceration to stop. While decriminalizing is not a single magical solution to all problems, it is one meaningful step towards building better, safer, and stronger communities.

“Decriminalization not Diversion” was held in McPherson Square, a location in Kensington that has come under high scrutiny and political pressure. McPherson Square is a library and an attached public park where many unhoused people live and use drugs. Their presence has fueled community frustration that their presence deters the space from being used for its intended purpose. Unhoused people are often seen as encroaching community spaces and not seen as neighbors which shifts the blame away from governing bodies who are responsible for providing resources onto people who are themselves displaced and unresourced. Hence, the intent of the event was to bring unhoused people into a conversation around how our resources can be used that also takes the needs of both unhoused and housed residents into account.

The event was staffed by Project Safe, Philadelphia Red Umbrella, Socialist Rifle Association ( SRA Philadelphia Chapter), and Philadelphia Asians 4 Liberation & Mutual Solidarity (PA4LMS). Project Safe provided harm reduction kits, the Using Drugs Alone Guide, and clothing donations while PA4MS brought self defense kits and SRA collaborated with distributing food.

The police, an endemic presence in McPherson Square, watched on as we set up mics for our speakers. After I introduced the event, we heard from Nayimah Sanchez and Seneca Joyner. Nayimah Sanchez is a Trans Afro Latina who identifies as a former sex worker and is currently with the ACLU-PA as their coordinator of the Trans Justice Program. Seneca Joyner is a Black abortion rights activist who identifies as a sex worker and a mother. All three of us spoke about the terror of police and state violence as well as the beauty and resilience of our collective joy and strength. Afterwards, we heard on and off the mic from community members about how state violence had impacted their lives and the isolation they feel when they are further shunned by neighbors.

Stigmatized people are often treated as audiences that need to be taught and inspired. They are assumed to be wayward people that need to be shepherded and course corrected.Through this logic, they are only ever offered inspiring speeches about how they, too, can bootstrap themselves out of the agony of their situation by making “better” choices. It was this narrative that our event was meant to turn upside down. The choices that people who trade sex work and/or use and sell drugs are valid and legitimate choices. The problem is not those choices; the problem stems from structures that criminalize behavior that people have been engaging in for millennia.

As the mic was left on and Spotify playlist “Heaux History” by Venus Selenite blared through the park, police walked through our space uninvited. To have them so boldly walk through our spaces when we had clearly condemned them and their presence was an intimidation tactic. While I watched, I was reminded of the ways that sex working organizers have resisted state violence through generations. We have presented our grievances to legislature, revolted against police suppression, and invited community into conversation through music, plays, and public speak-outs. Sex workers are always the labor organizers who are at the forefront of experiencing violence and oppression, and the fight against both.

My hope with this event was that community members saw our most stigmatized community members as people. The state has invested much into dehumanizing our community to where they are seen as nuisance and objects rather than living, breathing people just trying to make the best decisions for their present circumstances. Writing stigmatized people off as making bad choices without thinking breaks down conversation. The problems ailing neighborhoods like Kensington are complex and need complex solutions. None of us can craft these solutions without making space for difficult conversations and taking care to not feel our most stigmatized excluded.