California’s SB 357, the Safer Streets for All Act, took effect on January 1, 2023, and repealed the state’s crime of loitering with intent to engage in prostitution. Police can no longer arrest someone simply for standing, walking, or waving at cars in an area associated with sex work. Prostitution and solicitation themselves are still illegal under a separate statute, and pimping and pandering remain felonies.
The Loitering Offense That Was Repealed
Former Penal Code Section 653.22 made it a crime to linger in a public place with the intent to commit prostitution. Officers didn’t need to see a transaction or hear a conversation about one. They could infer intent from behaviors listed in the statute itself: repeatedly waving at passing cars, trying to flag down drivers, circling in a vehicle while contacting pedestrians, or having a prostitution-related conviction in the past five years.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 653.22 (2021) The statute also told officers to give more weight to those behaviors if they happened in a neighborhood “known for prostitution activity.”
SB 357 struck that section from the code entirely.2California Legislative Information. SB 357 – Crimes: Loitering for the Purpose of Engaging in a Prostitution Offense The behavioral indicators, the location-based suspicion, and the offense itself are gone.
What’s Still Illegal
SB 357 did not decriminalize prostitution. Penal Code Section 647(b) still makes it illegal to solicit, agree to, or engage in prostitution, and a conviction requires more than suspicious appearance. Prosecutors must show that a person actually solicited or agreed to a sexual act for money and took some additional step toward carrying it out.3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 647
Related offenses also remain on the books:
- Penal Code Section 653.23 makes it illegal to direct, recruit, or aid another person in committing prostitution, or to collect the proceeds of someone else’s prostitution.4California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 653.23
- Sections 266h and 266i, the pimping and pandering statutes, carry felony penalties for living off prostitution earnings or persuading someone to become a sex worker.
- Section 647 still criminalizes loitering in a public restroom to solicit a lewd act, loitering on private property without lawful business, and peeping while loitering on someone else’s property.3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 647
SB 357 removed the power to arrest someone for looking like they might be involved in prostitution. It left every law against actually engaging in it intact.
How Enforcement Works Now
Under the old statute, an officer who saw a person standing on a known stroll, dressed in a certain way, and glancing at passing cars had enough to justify an arrest. That framework no longer exists. For a prostitution-related arrest today, police need evidence of a crime under Section 647(b): an observed solicitation, an agreement to exchange sex for money, or a concrete step toward completing the exchange. Undercover operations, in which officers pose as clients or workers and wait for an explicit offer, remain a common tool.
The practical shift is this. Someone walking home late through a neighborhood with a reputation for street-level sex work can no longer be stopped on the theory that their presence signals criminal intent.
Clearing a Prior Loitering Conviction
SB 357 added Penal Code Section 653.29, which lets anyone convicted under the old loitering statute petition to have that conviction dismissed and sealed.5California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 653.29 The court presumes you qualify. If anyone opposes the petition, they must show by clear and convincing evidence that you don’t.
If You’re Still Serving the Sentence
File a petition with the trial court that entered the conviction, asking for resentencing or for dismissal and sealing. If you meet the criteria, the court must grant it, either recalling the sentence or dismissing the conviction as legally invalid, and seal the record.
If You’ve Already Completed the Sentence
File an application in the same trial court for dismissal and sealing as legally invalid. The same presumption and evidentiary standard apply. No hearing is required unless you ask for one.
Once sealed, the conviction is treated as legally invalid, which can lift barriers to housing and employment. The Judicial Council makes the petition and application forms available.2California Legislative Information. SB 357 – Crimes: Loitering for the Purpose of Engaging in a Prostitution Offense
Minors
The repealed loitering statute already exempted anyone under 18, directing minors toward dependency proceedings rather than criminal charges.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 653.22 (2021) Under current law, an adult who solicits a minor for prostitution faces enhanced penalties, including a mandatory minimum of two days in county jail and fines up to $10,000 for a first offense.3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 647