er for four years, questions the benefits of legalization, as demonstrated in Nevada. "Under the current system," she says, "if you are arrested and incarcerated, you are put behind bars. Legalization would be the same thing. You're being put behind barbed wire, and it is dictated to you where you can go, when you can go there, and who you can talk to. That's certainly not enticing to me." Norma Jean Almodovar of COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), a national advocacy and assistance organization for sex industry workers, explains that "those of us who are out-and-out whores want our [fellow workers] to be free." Quan adds that although some prostitutes find that legal brothels such as those in Nevada work for them, others choose illegal action because they want to be in control. "Nevada doesn't encourage hookers to become madams," Quan says. "And, to us, it is very much an industry just like any other money-making career. We want to know there is a level of hierarchy where upward mobility is possible." And many prostitutes are as cynical about the government and the cops as they are about pimps and johns. "There have been numerous examples of how law enforcement officials have used laws as a form of extortion," says Almodovar. " `Blow me for your license' is not the answer."...
