Ricardo “Pichi” Canales, 33, and Lana Rosas, 25, drive around the Bronx and Harlem every Friday evening doing outreach for Citiwide, a harm-reduction organization in the South Bronx that provides free condoms and other miscellaneous health supplies to intravenous drug users and sex workers. New York City started distributing free male condoms in 1971 to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Today, these condoms are used as evidence in prostitution arrests. In January, a bill that would prohibit police from submitting condoms as evidence of prostitution or intent to solicit will be introduced in Albany. The “No Condoms As Evidence” bill, co-sponsored by N.Y. Senator Velmanette Montgomery, has been reintroduced every year since 1999 but has yet to make it to the floor for a vote. On March 24, the N.Y. Senate Codes Committee passed the bill and sent it to the Judiciary Committee for consideration.
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