In Chicago, prostitute-activists are urging social services over arrests.

Whatever their childhood aspirations, each of the women -- ranging in age from their late twenties to their early fifties -- ended up selling their bodies to strangers for money. They sometimes were beaten and cheated by customers, served time in jail and were run out of neighborhoods by residents who said the women's behavior destroyed property values.

Now, in face-to-face meetings set up by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the women have begun telling their hard-knocks life stories to those same neighbors who once shooed them away. Their goal is to get society to focus less on criminal prosecution and more on solving the underlying problems that lead women such as them -- and some men, too -- to the streets in the first place: sexual abuse, drug dependency, poor job skills and low self-esteem.

We agree with providing social services instead of jail time. In fact, we think prostititution should be decriminalized altogether.