- [Mark] All right, Courtney. Courtney, where'd you grow up? Where are you from originally? - I don't really normally tell my town but I grew up in New Mexico. - [Mark] Okay. You had
both your parents as a kid? - In a sense, biological
mother, adopted father. - [Mark] And how was your childhood? - I was beaten. - [Mark] By? - My adopted father ended up on heroine. He used kettle pots, a belt
with wire sticking out of them paddles, where it would
leave, well bruises. I had five broken ribs in
elementary school from being kicked down two flights of
stairs with steel toe boots. - [Mark] Did you report this to any, did your mom know about it? - She did. When the school seen one
of the bruises one day, they called CYFD. I was removed from there but the foster home wasn't much better. - [Mark] So your mom
stayed married to him? - Yes. - [Mark] And you went to a foster home and what happened there? - For the first week I was
with the nice Mexican couple. Didn't speak a whole lot of
English but treated us good From there I was moved
and beaten and passed beaten and passed, beaten and passed. Always known as the problem child. - [Mark] So you've had some terrible luck in the foster system? - Very. - [Mark] That's a common story. And then you were on your own at what age? - 16. - [Mark] And where'd you go? - I ended up in a city in Oklahoma. Nobody wants to really hire a 16 year old, not for full-time work, which
is what you need to live. So I had this girl one
day, she told me, Oh there's this quick way,
quick way you can make money. Okay well, what is it? Prostitution. - [Mark] So you started doing it at 16? - Yeah. - [Mark] This was on your
own or through someone else? - At first it was on my own. Didn't really know
anybody, but then, you know she introduced me to her pimp and it just, and from there you can't like, once you have a pimp, that's it. There's some that are better than others. Some don't feed us as much. Others will give you a bigger percentage of the money that you make. You know, so you can
buy things for yourself, but if you don't make their money. or the money that you're supposed to meet and you're gone for a
certain amount of time, you got an ass beating coming. Hard. I know this one girl that got hit in the head with a sledgehammer because she was gone and didn't have the right amount of money
for the time she was gone. - [Mark] And you had more
than one pimp. It sounds like? - Especially traveling
from state to state. So Yeah. - [Mark] Are drugs a part of your life? - Definitely. - [Mark] Were you using crystal
meth back then too, at 16? - No, but at 16, I really wasn't okay with
the idea of prostitution. So I was introduced to crystal meth as kind of a way to numb
the emotions I guess. If you don't feel it,
can't let it bother you. So that's where it all started. I've done crystal meth every
way you could possibly think of it, eat it, snort
it, hot rail, slam it. They're called booty
blasters, but (indistinct). I've done it every possible
way you could possibly imagine. That side of my face has been shattered. My jaw has been shattered - [Mark] From who? - One was a date. Got mad. - [Mark] You've, you've had some bad
experiences on your customer? - Yeah. I didn't know that he was, another pimp trying to take me. So when I called mine, cause I was gone for this amount of time with no money. And he got mad about that because it was going to cause
an issue between them. And I got hit Not doing what I was told.
Keeping my mouth shut. - [Mark] And how old are you today? - 26. - [Mark] 26. So you've
been in LA how long? - I've been in LA since February. - [Mark] And are you still
dating guys for money? - Yes. - [Mark] Do you work with a pimp or are you working on your own? - So far? I've managed
to make it on my own. I just know it's inevitable. So I'm going to have
to pick one eventually or I'm just going to be out there for everybody to beat up
and take the money from. - [Mark] And what neighborhoods
do you work specifically? - I work all the way
from Alameda to Broadway - [Mark] So basically
downtown skid row area? - Well, - [Mark] Cause there's the
Valley. There's long beach. There's Figueroa. There's what? - I've been to the Valley.
I've been to long beach. I've been to Santa Monica, down here. I've been to garden, Gardena, Gardena - [Mark] Gardena, worked
over there or something?. Lots of different areas.
And you've worked them all? You've been arrested before? - Nope. - [Mark] Never been arrested? - Nope. Somehow by the grace of God I may stay out of jail for that one. I mean, I've been arrested on like taking off page, staying too long in one
spot in the city or whatever but I've never been
arrested for prostitution. - [Mark] Do you have children? - None that I've ever seen. - [Mark] So you had kids, but
you gave them up right away? - Or I didn't make it to pregnancy because of the nasty, full term. - [Mark] Oh I see. So where, where do you see
yourself going from here? So you're 26 and you're you've been on the street
for quite a while now. The addiction has got to be
a tough one to shake, right? - It is. But I've met some I've met some interesting people in the, believe it or not. I met this one fun pimp.
Yeah you work for him but that percentage of your
money if you ask him to, he'll set it back in a savings account. Like he pimps them for a little while until they save up the money
that they need to to get out. - [Mark] Interesting. - That's what I said. But
prostitution's never going to end. So like he said, prostitution
is never going to end. He's always going to because you're going
to be working for him. You know, he's going to take his cut. It's not as much as anybody else's. I guarantee that, but he's
going to take his cut. Cause he's helping you
manage your money as well. So in the end and I've met
some of the other females, like he'll call them. They'll come. They'll be like, yeah. I used
to, I used to work for him. This one girl just graduated college. With her doctorate. - [Mark] He's a good pimp. - This one girl just graduated
college with her doctorate, working for him. And she
don't work for him anymore. And he's okay with that. They're
still really good friends. - [Mark] (indistinct) She
said, if it wasn't for him she probably would have died out here. - [Mark] That's interesting. So are you living on the street now? - I am. - [Mark] In a tent? - No, not exactly. I just
kind of float around. - [Mark] Do you swing it? - pretty much. - [Mark] And do you have
like regular customers that'll contact you and
you make money with them? - I have those and then, I dunno, I guess I'm just so used to it. That it takes me five trips to the store. Just to buy a pack of cigarettes. You can't turn down,
can't turn down money. You can't because once
you turn one of them down then word spreads and money
goes from up here, down here. And when money hits down
here, it gets extremely rough. More than you would think on the streets. - [Mark] How much money will you make? The kind of on a date. - On a date, on one date? - [Mark] Yeah, - I mean, it really just
depends on the area. I've had one date as low as 30 and I've had one date as high as 1500. So it depends on the person how much money they've got to spend and how much they're willing to spend. - [Mark] What's the craziest
thing you've experienced in your years of doing this? - I had this one that wanted me to suck on his nipples while he jerked off. It was, one on, let me see. It was just gross. It was flat out gross to me, but it made me my money and helped him out so it's all that mattered. Sometimes you just got
to stick through it. - [Mark] You haven't had
anything really violent, terrible happened? - Other than the broken bones. - [Mark] What kind of stuff is that? - I've been kidnapped. I've been beaten. I've been, I've been held at gunpoint. There's things that I've
been made to do at gunpoint that I wouldn't wish anybody
else to have to go through. But in the end, the choice
was either me or them. - [Mark] Do you have any friends? - I don't really consider
anybody my friend. I don't trust anybody. - [Mark] Especially down here. - Ever. I don't really trust anybody ever. - [Mark] So what do you think
would help you most therapy or housing or rehab or
combination of all three or? - Honestly, I don't know. I really don't know. I think it might depend
on how bad we want it. - [Mark] You think what? I think a lot of it would
depend on how bad you want it. Yeah. How much you're used to it. Like when you have that last $5 and you're doing your life the right way are you going to automatically
revert back to it or are you going to be able to push past that breaking point is because when you're on the prostitution business and you get down to the last little bit
of money, you're like, Oh no I got to catch a date.
I got to catch a date. I got to catch a date. Never go without money. That's rule number one,
if you don't have money you're not doing your job. And then you have to make sure that if you don't want to do
anything on your period you better damn well,
make sure that you're out there busting your ass the
rest of the three weeks. So you have that money saved up while you're on your
period or your pimp don't give a fuck. You might get your ass out there and do hand jobs, blow jobs, something. You better get your ass out
there and make your money. - [Mark] So, so what does
your typical day look like? You wake up and, on crystal
meth you stay up all night? - Sometimes. I mean, everybody
has to sleep eventually. So typically my day, make as much money as I
can without passing out. Because when you pass out,
then that draws attention because of ambulances and then cops. And you really don't want that
because they really get this. So you make as much money as you can without drawing attention. And then if you're going to
be up all night, you know you start feeling a little
tired, find a spot, take a couple of hits, but you better not be
there more than five minutes. Get your ass back out there
and be finding a date. - [Mark] Do you dream about
a different life sometimes? - I used to. I used to, but I don't think it
will ever happen for me. I think that this is my life and quite possibly all it will ever be. Mess up one time, wrong hit one way. You're dead. - [Mark] there's a good chance you might. - There's a good chance
I could end up dead. 10 minutes walking out this door. It's that people die
every day in the streets and it's nothing. Walked by
dead bodies all the time. Before people even realize they're dead and it don't even phase me anymore. I'm like that sucks. That's the kind of life it is. - [Mark] Your Mom and
stepdad are still alive? - Father no. Mother, I'm not sure I don't
stay in contact with her. - [Mark] You haven't talked to her? - Nope I don't have
anything to say to her. - [Mark] So, no family, no friends? - Pretty much. Just trying to get by. Trying to have the best life I can for somebody like me. Kind of hard to have a boyfriend Whenever. All you do is have sex for money. So then when they're they
want to have sexual life and kind of makes them
feel some type of way. So - [Mark] Have you been in love before? - Yeah. Worst mistake in my life. He seen me flip out. I was high and tweaking. He tried to restrain me and I gave him no choice, but to hit me. But, but because I pushed him
to that point, he walked away. He would never talk to me again. That's whenever you learn, you can't have both worlds. You can't have a boyfriend and do this. You can't do this and have any any expectancy at a normal life. There isn't one because the second somebody finds out what you do, they see you completely differently than the person they knew you to be. That one little thing, changes everything. All of a sudden, they don't want to hang out with you because they don't know if they can trust their
boyfriend around you or it's not even like that, but that's worldview on it. So that's how it goes. Kind of hard to keep friends that way too. - [Mark] Do you see the,
the connection between what happened to you as a as a young girl and in the situation you're in today? - Yes. - [Mark] And it's almost
like you're, you're, what you believe you deserve
is set at that young age. - I don't think it's so much
weight you think you deserve because obviously I
went and ran away at 16. If I thought I deserved that, but just because you think you
can make it on your own at such a young age, you can't. So all it did is keep the cycle going because I never knew anything
better than what I've got. So I mean it's life, but sometimes I sit in wonder like if I had come from a good family, you know, or been raised
right. Or had, you know, finished high school or
went to college or, you know had the family like the
good side of family life. I wonder if I'd actually
have this kind of life. I don't, I mean, I guess it's possible but I really don't see it. If you come from a good family Why are you going to
make stupid decisions? Not so much that running away was stupid because I was getting beaten, but... And then sometimes you sit
there and you dream like, Oh maybe one day I'll
meet one of these dates and they're just going to be, you know the guy that gets me the fuck outta here. Still waiting. - [Mark] All right, Courtney. Well, thank you so much
for sharing your story and I hope you figure out a way. - Thank you. - [Mark] Off the streets. - Thanks. - [Mark] Thank you very much. - No problem.
