In Massachusetts, Child Sex Slaves Go To Jail

by Amanda Kloer · 2010-12-07 06:30:00 UTC
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Massachusetts is one of only a handful of states in the U.S. without a law making human trafficking a crime. That means that children forced into prostitution are often arrested and sent to prison while the pimps who sell them and men who buy them walk free. Tell the Massachusetts legislature its time to fix their abysmal lack of  laws criminalizing modern-day slavery and stop sending abused kids to jail.

House Bill 1328, which would finally criminalize human trafficking in Massachusetts, was filed over a year ago but has yet to pass. The bill is very basic state legislation that would make it illegal to exploit human beings through force, fraud or coercion, and would hold responsible the people who attempt to do so. Without this legislation in place, addressing human trafficking in Massachusetts -- especially cases that don't involve transportation to other states -- is incredibly challenging. Plus it means that related policies, like those preventing child sex trafficking victims from being thrown in jail, are impossible to create.

One such related policy has been proposed in Massachusetts as the state's first "safe harbor" legislation. Safe harbor laws allow police officers to pick up minors they identify as abused or trafficked into the commercial sex industry. But instead of arresting them and sending them to juvenile detention, as is often the case now, the victims are diverted into social services to help them recover from their experiences, stabilize their living situation, and keep them in school. Efforts to divert youth engaged in prostitution from detention to support are already underway in parts of Massachusetts, but the state needs a safe harbor law to solidify and fund the effort. Otherwise there is no "get out of jail free" card for trafficked kids.

But before Massachusetts can pass a Safe Harbor law that protects child trafficking victims from arrest and jail, they first need to recognize child trafficking as a crime.

Tell the Massachusetts House of Representatives to give child sex trafficking victims a "get out of jail free card" by making human trafficking a crime and providing safe harbor for its victims. It's about time a state with so many progressive laws finally caught up to the rest of the country in their efforts to end modern-day slavery and keep crime victims from being imprisoned.

Photo credit: Mark Stroizer

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic

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