The "mug shots" of the women arrested for prostitution in our region usually tell the story.

Sad faces and desperate lives.

Most are caught in a cycle of hustling and substance abuse - they turn their tricks for drugs or money to buy drugs. When they are occasionally arrested, they pay minor fines that are often viewed as just one of the costs of doing business.

Then most return to the streets, with little changing except the corner they are working.

The city of Huntington is planning a new program that officials hope will begin to break that cycle and give these women a chance at a better life.

About $140,000 in federal funding has been awarded to expand the Cabell County drug court program with a focus on women who are engaged in prostitution to support a drug habit.

The drug court program generally puts low-level offenders through rigorous treatment and monitoring to overcome their drug addiction rather than send them to already overcrowded jails. The Women's Empowerment and Addiction Recovery effort would offer these women additional mental and physical health care, counseling and therapy to get them out of the sex trade.

U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, who helped secure the funding, commended Huntington on establishing what will be a first-of-its-kind program for the state.

"By diverting these women to mental and physical health treatment programs instead of the criminal justice system, this program can help return them to healthy and productive members of society, and make an impact in the broader battle against West Virginia's drug crisis," Capito said this week.

The WEAR program can hopefully provide targeted intervention for women who are already moving in and out of the criminal justice system. That will help some of them overcome their battles with addiction, and over time, make efforts to police sex trafficking more effective.