Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley today urged Massachusetts lawmakers to adopt statewide his policy of dismissing charges against minors arrested in prostitution cases, even as a South End man was being arraigned across town for trying to solicit sex from a 14-year-old girl in exchange for money.

Conley testified this afternoon before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in support of a bill he filed in January that would mandate the termination of criminal charges against juveniles arrested in sex-for-fee cases and instead refer them to service providers – a policy he implemented locally five years ago after launching the program now known as Support to End Exploitation Now, or SEEN, in partnership with the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley testified May 18 in support of a bill that would expand statewide his voluntary policy of dismissing criminal charges against children and teenagers arrested in prostitution cases and treat them as victims in need of services rather than defendants.

“Our policy is to divert those exploited youth toward service providers who can help get them out of that dangerous life while we focus our law enforcement efforts on the pimps and johns who buy and sell their bodies,” Conley said.

Even as he spoke, Suffolk prosecutors assigned to Roxbury District Court were arraigning MICHAEL A. JACKSON (D.O.B. 2/10/64) of Boston’s South End on charges of soliciting for prostitution and enticement of a child for his alleged overtures toward a 14-year-old girl Roxbury girl.

Jackson allegedly approached the girl at about 5:30 p.m. on Dudley Street as she returned home from a relative’s house. He allegedly complimented her appearance and offered her $100 in exchange for sex acts. The girl ran home and told her mother, who called Boston Police and followed the man until officers arrived and detained him on a warrant out of Chelsea for shoplifting. After further interviews by Boston Police Sexual Assault Unit, Jackson was placed under arrest.

Judge David Poole held Jackson without bail at prosecutors’ request pending a dangerousness hearing on May 24. He was represented today by attorney Robert Reardon.

“The victims of commercial sexual exploitation aren’t prostituting themselves,” Conley said. “They’re being groomed, recruited, turned out, and terrorized by grown men. They’re being sold on the street, in newspapers, and online by people who know that you can sell a drug only once, but you can sell a teenage girl over and over again.”

Conley said only a handful of exploited youth were referred to his office as victims of abuse in the years preceding the SEEN program, but that more than 400 have been identified since its 2005 implementation.

“The number of prostituted teens in our jurisdiction didn’t change overnight,” Conley testified. “Our way of looking at the problem did. And as we learned more about these youth, we saw that most of them were runaways, almost all of them had a history of childhood sexual abuse, and the majority of them were just 15 or 16 years old when they were referred to us. Some had been recruited as young as 12 years old.”

Conley thanked Representatives Elizabeth Malia and Martin Walsh and Senator Thomas McGee for sponsoring the House and Senate versions of An Act Relative to Safe Harbor for Exploited Children, asked them to report the bill favorably out of committee, and urged the Legislature as a whole to enact it.

“We cannot, in good conscience, allow these victims to be further victimized by prosecuting them for their own exploitation,” he said. “I urge you to take a stand for girls and boys who have been cast aside to live in life’s margins.”