California Penal Code 315 PC prohibits people from living in or maintaining a brothel for prostitution. This crime is prosecuted as a misdemeanor, carrying up to six months in jail and/or up to $1,000 in fines.
The statute reads:
315. Every person who keeps a house of ill-fame in this state, resorted to for the purposes of prostitution or lewdness, or who wilfully resides in such house, is guilty of a misdemeanor; and in all prosecutions for keeping or resorting to such a house common repute may be received as competent evidence of the character of the house, the purpose for which it is kept or used, and the character of the women inhabiting or resorting to it.
Legal Analysis
California Penal Code 315 PC makes it a misdemeanor to maintain or to live in a brothel. It does not matter if the person is not participating in or profiting from the sex work.
Example: Lily is a prostitute living in an secret brothel in Los Angeles. Lily lets her sister Alice live there while she is between jobs. Even though Alice is not a sex worker herself, she could be arrested for defying PC 315 merely by living in a “house of ill-fame.”
Penalties for violating PC 315 include:
- up to six months in county jail, and/or
- up to $1,000 in fines.
Prostitution remains illegal throughout California. It does not matter whether it occurs in a:
- brothel,
- hotel,
- private residence, or
- elsewhere.1
People convicted of engaging in – or merely soliciting – prostitution face the misdemeanor penalties of:
- up to 6 months in county jail, and/or
- up to $1,000 in fines.
However, a second-time offense carries a minimum of 45 days in jail. A third or subsequent offense, meanwhile, carries a minimum of 90 days in jail.2
Violating PC 315 is charged as a misdemeanor in California.
Legal References
- California Penal Code 315 PC – Keeping or residing in house of ill-fame. See, for example: People v. Pangelina (Cal. App. 1st Dist. Mar. 27, 1981), 117 Cal. App. 3d 414, 172 Cal. Rptr. 661; In re Lane (Cal. June 28, 1962), 58 Cal. 2d 99, 22 Cal. Rptr. 857, 372 P.2d 897.
- PC 647(b).