JANUARY 25, 2024
CONTACT: Sarah Flaim
202-546-4242
WASHINGTON – Today, a leading anti sex trafficking non-profit is calling on governors in all 50 states to examine their probation and prison populations for potential child sex trafficking survivors who have been criminally prosecuted despite their own trafficking victimization.
The letter from Shared Hope International (SHI) – a non-profit organization focused on sex trafficking prevention strategies, restoration programs, and justice initiatives – urges governors to “help right some of the wrongs experienced by this particularly vulnerable population of trafficking survivors,” by:
- Screening all minors who were prosecuted as an adult to determine if they have experienced trafficking victimization. This screening should include individuals who are now adults but were initially charged or prosecuted when they were a minor, and should include individuals committed to adult prisons or juvenile facilities, or under the oversight of adult probation services;
- Providing access to appropriate services, including re-entry services that support survivors after they are released from prison;
- Providing access to legal services that help survivors address the short and long-term consequences of being criminalized;
- Advancing legal protections, including non-criminalization, immunity, affirmative defenses and vacatur, to provide relief from unjust criminalization and ideally prevent it at the outset; and
- Expanding access to funded community-based services to provide alternatives to prosecution and incarceration for responding to child trafficking survivors.
SHI Founder and President Linda Smith explained how imprisonment of survivors re-victimizes them and prohibits them from getting the restorative care and support they so desperately need, “Imagine, if you will, a child who was sold into sex trafficking at age nine or ten. The child spent day after day, year after year wondering if anyone was coming to help. Then, one day, someone finally comes along. But, instead of connecting them with therapy, rehabilitation, and a safe place, that child is put on trial as an adult and thrown into prison with hardened criminals. Sadly, this is the reality across America – but it doesn’t have to be! We are calling on governors to step in to right these wrongs and ensure no child is ever further victimized by the institutions that should be there to protect them.”
Once such child victim is Shared Hope Ambassador Yvonne, “I was trafficked and raped from the age of 11. At 16 years old, I was arrested, told I was the criminal, and spent many years in jail. Yet nobody was there to stop my trafficker or the men paying him to use me. Through the help of Shared Hope International, I am now able to be that voice I wish I’d had at 16 through the Girls Like Me Campaign, which is working to bring notice to this kind of injustice and give a voice to those still in prison.”
SHI is calling on Americans across the country to join the fight and urge their governors to examine their prison population for these victims. To learn more about the vital work of SHI and send the letter to governors, people should text the keyword Shared Hope to 52886 and visit sharedhope.org.
###
