Twenty men arrested for trying to buy sex in Portland were given a choice: walk away with a permanent criminal record, or sit through a closed-door class where survivors of the sex trade tell them, face to face, what buying sex actually costs. That class is Portland's Sex Buyers Accountability and Diversion Program, better known around town as John School, and it just let a television crew inside for a rare look at how it actually works.
FOX 12 was granted rare access inside the program, according to KPTV, which reported that the class is designed to make sure men arrested for trying to buy sex never do it again. In Multnomah County, eligible first-time offenders can pay a $1,000 upfront tuition fee and attend the structured class to earn a complete dismissal of their commercial sexual solicitation charges, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office. Survivors of the sex trade share their stories directly with the men who bought sex, per the same station's reporting, turning the class into something closer to a reckoning than a lecture.
Where the Tuition Money Actually Goes
That $1,000 fee doesn't just fund the class itself. Tuition revenue is split among program administrator LifeWorks Northwest, the Portland Police Bureau, and the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, with police using their cut to fund officer overtime and surveillance equipment for undercover decoy stings, according to Courthouse News. In effect, the fines offenders pay to avoid a record help bankroll the very stings that catch the next round of buyers.
The demand the program is meant to disrupt is substantial. Law enforcement estimates that roughly 11,000 attempts to purchase sex online occur in Multnomah County every week, the county district attorney's office has reported. Buying sex in Oregon falls under Oregon Revised Statute 167.008, which classifies commercial sexual solicitation as a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in jail and fines as high as $6,250, according to Justia Law.
Most Trafficking Arrests Are Actually Solicitation Cases
The program's roots trace back to 2011, when Portland's current prosecutor-managed diversion model replaced earlier court-partnered education efforts like the Sexual Exploitation Education Project, according to KING5 News. But reporting from Courthouse News and Willamette Week found that 85% of arrests made by the Portland Police Bureau's Human Trafficking Unit were for commercial sexual solicitation rather than felony trafficking, as reported by OPB. That distinction matters: while police and prosecutors frame buyer stings as a way to choke off the demand fueling trafficking, the numbers show the overwhelming majority of these operations net simple solicitation charges, not traffickers.
That gap between framing and outcomes has drawn pushback. In November 2021, advocates from the Oregon Sex Workers Committee testified before the Portland City Council calling for an end to police buyer stings and diversion programs, arguing that suppressing buyers drives away safe, regular clients and increases safety risks for sex workers, Courthouse News reported. The debate has continued even as multi-agency operations keep running: during a July 2026 crackdown involving the Portland Police Bureau, the FBI, and regional sheriff's offices, law enforcement arrested six men for commercial sexual solicitation while also contacting six sex workers to offer victim advocacy and housing assistance, according to The Outlook.
A High-Profile Case Shows the Program in Action
Portland's diversion tuition fits a pattern seen nationwide. More than 70 U.S. jurisdictions operate similar John School programs funded by buyer fees ranging from $400 to $1,500, with surplus funds often redirected to victim assistance programs, according to a national summary by Demand Forum. One local case shows what's at stake for offenders who go through Multnomah County's version: in March 2025, regional winemaker Todd A. Alexander pleaded guilty in Multnomah County Circuit Court to commercial sexual solicitation and was ordered to complete the Sex Buyers Accountability and Diversion program, obey court-ordered restrictions on commercial sex websites, or face a five-day jail sanction, according to regional court records.
The program sits at the intersection of criminal justice reform, law enforcement demand-reduction strategy, and an ongoing local debate over sex work, as Courthouse News has reported. It offers first-time offenders a chance to avoid a criminal record through survivor-led education, but the underlying policy mechanism remains contested between law enforcement officials and harm-reduction advocates, with no resolution in sight for either side of that argument.
