Kathleen Mitchell
Founder, DIGNITY House
This is an brief excerpt from an feature article appearing in the March 16-22, 2000 issue of Phoenix New Times written by Amanda Scioscia

Kathleen Mitchell knows girls like Nicole, a prostitute, because she once was one herself. Now, however, she runs DIGNITY House, a halfway house for prostitutes who want to leave that life behind.

Nicole denies knowing her, but listens to Mitchell's pitch as she wipes off the fingerprint ink.

"We're not here to judge you, we're not cops," Mitchell says. "We just want to let you know there are other options. Eventually you will have to stop."

She gives Nicole a card, says to call if she needs anything. The police load Nicole into the paddywagon. Mitchell has simply planted a seed. Nicole is not yet miserable enough to ask for help; she has a pimp who will bail her out tonight. She's young, and the streets have yet to take their toll.

It isn't hard to get into the sex industry. The hard part is getting out.

In Pretty Woman, Richard Gere reclaimed Julia Roberts from the ranks of hookers by putting her in a red dress and getting her to stop fidgeting.

But when the subject is a 10-year crackhead, it takes more than Hollywood to get her ready for the opera. It takes a saint. Or a miracle.

Prostitutes and police alike use these words to describe Kathleen Mitchell, founder and coordinator of the DIGNITY program. This 56-year-old grandmother has dedicated her life to helping women escape the sex industry. She teaches classes to prostitutes in jail and runs DIGNITY House, helping prostitutes who want a new, saner vocation.

With her white hair and gentle, soft-spoken demeanor, it is easy to imagine Mitchell in this role of caregiver, mother and savior.

She's also a former madam. In 1989, Mitchell was indicted on 14 counts of receiving earnings of a prostitute, and also on charges of leading an organized-crime syndicate and conducting an illegal enterprise. She pleaded guilty to the felony charge of operating a prostitution enterprise. Her criminal record consists of prostitution charges dating back to 1968.

"I was involved in that life of prostitution for 21 years. It's one of the hardest things in the world for a woman to live down," says Mitchell, adding that society is "willing to forgive drug dealers, perverts -- but women who prostituted and child molesters are unforgivable."

Mitchell now plays a different role in the lives of prostitutes. A year spent behind bars offered respite from her pimp and helped her see the reality of prostitution.

"I sat in jail and watched women come in and out. Circling. The revolving door. A full year of watching women come in three and four times. I thought, 'I need to do something for me, because I don't have the addiction for drugs, I don't have the addiction for alcohol. I have an addiction for a man.'"

". . . It's relationships that push us into this, keep us in it and push us further."

She formed DIGNITY -- Developing Individual Growth and New Independence Through Yourself -- in Durango Jail in 1989 as a support group for women wanting to leave the sex industry.

Her DIGNITY House residency program opened its doors in a central-Phoenix neighborhood in April 1998 under the auspices of Catholic Social Services.

Read the full story in Phoenix New Times' March 16-22, 2000 edition or at its web site.