Tuesday, August 27, 2013

NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN ARE BEING SOLD INTO THE SEX TRADE ON SHIPS ALONG LAKE SUPERIOR

http://www.vice.com/read/first-nations-women-are-being-sold-into-the-sex-trade-on-ships-along-lake-superior

NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN ARE BEING SOLD INTO THE SEX TRADE ON SHIPS ALONG LAKE SUPERIOR

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Apparently the women are sold for "parties" on American ships. Picture via WikiCommons
Native women, children, and even babies are being trafficked in the sex trade on freighters crossing the Canada-US border on Lake Superior between Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Duluth, Minnesota.
Next month, Christine Stark—a student with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, who is completing her master’s degree in social work—will complete an examination of the sex trade in Minnesota, in which she compiles anecdotal, firsthand accounts of Native women, particularly from northern reservations, being trafficked across state, provincial, and international lines to be forced into servitude in the sex industry on both sides of the border.
Stark’s paper stems from a report she co-wrote, published by the Indian Women’s Sexual AssaultCoalition in Duluth in 2011, entitled, “The Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.” Through the process of researching and writing this report, Stark kept hearing stories of trafficking in the harbors and on the freighters of Duluth and Thunder Bay. The numerous stories and the gradual realization that this was an issue decades, perhaps centuries, in the making, compelled Stark to delve further into what exactly was taking place.
She decided to conduct an exploratory study, “simply because we have these stories circulating and we wanted to gather information and begin to understand what has happened and what currently is happening around the trafficking of Native American and First Nations women on the ships” said Stark, in an interview with the CBC Radio show Superior Morning. “Hearing from so many Native women over generations talking about the ‘boat whores,’ prostitution on the ships or the ‘parties on the ships,’ this is something that… was really entrenched in the Native community and we wanted to collect more specific information about it.”
Through her independent research and work with the Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, Stark interviewed hundreds of Native women who have been through the trauma of the Lake Superior sex trade. The stories she’s compiled are evidence of an underground industry that’s thriving on the suffering of First Nations women, which is seemingly going unchecked and underreported. 
In an article written for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Stark describes one disturbing anecdote of an Anishinaabe woman who had just left a shelter after being beaten by her pimp—who was a wealthy, white family man. He paid her bills, rent, and the essentials for her children, but on weekends, “brought up other white men from the cities for prostitution with Native women… he had her role play the racist 'Indian maiden and European colonizer' myth with him during sex.”
“The Duluth harbor is notorious among Native people as a site for the trafficking of Native women from northern reservations.” She continues, “in an ongoing project focused on the trafficking of Native women on ships in Duluth, it was found that the activity includes international transport of Native women and teens, including First Nations women and girls brought down from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to be sold on the ships… Native women, teen girls and boys, and even babies have been sold for sex on the ships.” Christine Stark’s complete research paper will be published in September.
The fact that these horrendous crimes are taking place right under the noses of North American authorities is obviously disturbing and somewhat surprising, considering we have a Conservative government that is oh-so-tough on the commercialization of human beings. However, the word trafficking can often be a blurry one.
I spoke with Kazia Pickard, the Director of Policy and Research with the Ontario Native Women’s Association based in Thunder Bay. Their organization has also been researching this issue. Kazia told me over email: “People assume that trafficking always takes place across international borders, however, the vast majority of people who are trafficked in Canada are indigenous women and girls from inside Canada and sometimes, as we're now starting to understand, across the US border.”
In an earlier interview with the CBC, she also alluded to the possibility that there was trafficking taking place across borders in Southern Ontario as well. She made it clear to me that the image most people imagine when they think about “human trafficking” often isn’t accurate: “The majority of women who are trafficked in Canada are indigenous women and girls. So it’s not that you have people being trafficked across international borders in shipping containers or something like that.”
In most cases it’s a lot more subtle. “Women may say they [have been pulled into it by] a boyfriend, there have been some reports of family members recruiting women into the sex trade… so it doesn’t appear in this sensationalized way that we may [think it is].”
And while it’s refreshing to hear Canadian Parliament members (particularly Conservative ones) such as Manitoba’s Joy Smith show some honest compassion, on the whole, the government’s attitude and response to protecting vulnerable Native women has been one of indifference. In July, the federal government dismissed calls made for an inquiry into missing or murdered Indian women by the provinces and territories’ premiers.
Christine Stark’s report is one that cannot be ignored. If the government is as serious as they claim to be about human trafficking, they can’t dismiss what’s taking place between Duluth and Thunder Bay the same way that they have regarding the 600 missing First Nations women. To ignore this issue would point to an obvious double standard when it comes to the treatment of Indian women, many of whom are clearly being taken advantage of.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Some Child Sex Trafficking Victims 'Rescued' by Recent FBI Sting Could End up in Jail

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/08/07/some-child-sex-trafficking-victims-rescued-by-recent-fbi-sting-could-end-up-in-jail

Some Child Sex Trafficking Victims 'Rescued' by Recent FBI Sting Could End up in Jail

If there is no available bed or housing for rescued children, law enforcement will place them in a detention facility

August 7, 2013 RSS Feed Print
Underage sex-trafficking victims are often placed in jail to prevent them from returning to the trade.
Underage sex-trafficking victims are often placed in jail to prevent them from returning to the trade.
When the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a nationwide sweep in late July to fight child prostitution, the agency boasted that "Operation Cross Country" had successfully rescued 105 sexually exploited children.
But the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which partnered with law enforcement for the sweep, says that some of those rescued children may now end up behind bars.
"If there is nowhere to hold them, and nowhere safe for them to go, law enforcement has no alternative," says Staca Shehan, the director of the case analysis division at the center. "If they aren't placed in a juvenile detention facility, the child could run back to the prostitution scenario."
To avoid this, police charge the children with prostitution and place them in a detention facility until housing elsewhere becomes available, according to Shehan.
FBI spokeswoman Whitney Malkin confirmed to U.S. News that some of the child victims rescued by Operation Cross Country could be detained, though she called such instances "rare" and said many more children would be placed in safe housing by FBI Victim Specialists.
"Detaining victims... falls far short of ideal," she says, but noted "the infrastructure to support the range of services just isn't there in many places."
In a May report, anti-sex trafficking group Shared Hope International said government agencies and law enforcement needed to do better at placing child sex trafficking victims in domestic shelters or providing other services. The group urged better communication between service providers, more training for law enforcement on trauma responses and more diverse options for placement.
Sienna Baskin at the Urban Justice Center, a New York-based advocacy group that works with sex trafficking victims, says the FBI should also provide more clarity on how many minors were detained in this particular sweep and where the others were placed.
"It seems like they're treating the arrest of minors as an acceptable collateral consequence of this operation. But arrest is a very traumatic experience that can lead to abuses for both adults and minors," she says.
The FBI was not able to immediately provide the number of detained children, or the number of female sex workers arrested in the sting – another concern of anti-trafficking groups about Operation Cross Country.
In their July newsletter, the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation said it believed police had used the sting as an opportunity to arrest more adults in prostitution. Stephanie Richard, policy and legal services director at the Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, says her group is also concerned about arrests of female sex workers in the sting because "we have not received assurances from those conducting these raids about whether or not adult women could be victims as well."
In past sweeps, the FBI released the numbers of prostitutes it had arrested, but it no longer does so. Local media reports on the sweep aggregated by feminist blogger and activist Emi Koyama suggest the number of sex workers arrested in Operation Cross Country may have been as high as 1,000.
But Shehan insists the "number one focus" of the operation was to recover minors, not arrest prostitutes. "Will [the FBI] leverage the interaction if they encounter an adult? Absolutely," she says. "But recovering juveniles from trafficking is the highest priority."
More News:

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

EEOC is using labor law to bring civil actions against suspected human traffickers

Annual Meeting Daily Newsletter - ABA Journal


EEOC is using labor law to bring civil actions against suspected human traffickers

by Terry Carter

Efforts to thwart human trafficking in workers has increased significantly in recent years, and the pace will quicken as employment rights intersect with human rights as an enforcement tool, shining a spotlight on employers.

"This is not just a [Justice Department] problem, not just a criminal problem," Robert Canino, a Dallas attorney for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, told the audience Sunday morning at an ABA Annual Meeting program.

Prosecutors sometimes have been stymied by having to prove violations beyond reasonable doubt. But Canino and others figured out that discriminatory practices against groups of workers imported into the United States could be cast differently for civil enforcement. For example, Canino said, sex workers who basically are enslaved are experiencing a form of sexual harassment, albeit extreme.

In cases with horrific facts that were difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, the EEOC has been able to bring civil actions requiring only a preponderance of the evidence. The idea didn't take hold at first.

"I thought, wow, we could prove [a case] by 51 percent, more-likely-than-not evidence," Canino said, recalling a meeting in 2000 with representatives from various agencies brought together by the DOJ. At the time, he says, he got no traction in the room.

Now he and others are bringing such cases, as labor law and human rights law join forces.


Read about how employers can battle labor trafficking.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/eeoc_labor_law_civil_actions_suspected_human_traffickers/

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Happening in the 'Hassee this Morning

Tallahassee Community Training on Human Trafficking
Join us on August 7th 2013 at FSU campus (Turnbull Center, 555 W. Pensacola St., Room 208) from 9:00am – 11:30 am and show your support in the fight to end modern-day slavery in our community! Refreshments will be provided. Parking is available in the Turnbull Center Garage and at the Civic Center Parking Lot
Why You? You are a key person to combat this crime and help keep our neighborhoods safe
 
 
Presenters
 
Terry Coonan – is the Executive Director of the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, and teaches in the FSU Law & Criminology Schools. Under his direction, the FSU Center provides pro bono legal assistance to trafficking victims and has produced several reports on trafficking in Florida at the request of the Florida Legislature. He has designed and led trafficking trainings for FDLE, the Office of the Attorney General, DCF, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
 
Brad Dennis - is the Director of Search Operations for KlaasKIDS Foundation’s National Search Center for Missing and Trafficked Children. Brad has been instrumental in the rescue of numerous children from sex trafficking and the intelligence he has gathered has assisted in taking down several child prostitution rings. His rescue efforts have been chronicled on CNN, MSNBC, The Early Show, The Today Show, Dateline and 48 Hours.
 
Tyson Elliott – is Human Trafficking Director with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.  He previously served as the Statewide Human Trafficking Coordinator for the Florida Department of Children and Families. He is an award winning human trafficking investigator who founded and co-chaired the Alachua County Human Trafficking Task Force in Gainesville.
 
Going Places Street Outreach - your local street based program that assists homeless, runaway and at risk youth avoid being exploited while they make their journey to exit the streets. We help connect victims of sex trafficking with agencies that can ensure their safety.
 
With YOUR help, the Big Bend community can fight modern slavery! For more information please contact: Taylor Biro atTaylor.Biro@ccys.org  (850) 576-6000 or Vania Llovera at vllovera@admin.fsu.edu (850) 644-4551.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Prosecuting Sex Buyers

Prosecuting Sex Buyers

To the Editor:
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While the widespread arrests were an important step to help break up child prostitution rings, the elimination of sex trafficking can’t happen exclusively through victim rescue and by arresting pimps. To get to the root of the crime, the demand for commercial sex must be exposed and eliminated.
Without sex buyers, there wouldn’t be sex trafficking. Currently, however, buyers are not being prosecuted under federal law. Representatives Ted Poe and Carolyn Maloney and others have introduced an important bill that would remedy this by expanding the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to penalize those who solicit or patronize sex trafficking victims.
As you report, 105 prostituted children were rescued, but countless others remain victimized. To eradicate this exploitation in its entirety, Congress must pass this bill so that buyers can no longer fuel the market with impunity.
LAUREN HERSH
New York Director, Equality Now
New York, July 30, 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

Fighting Human Trafficking, One Community at a Time

Fighting Human Trafficking, One Community at a Time

Posted: 08/01/2013 6:01 pm

On Monday, July 29, 2013, the world watched in horror at 150 men in 76 cities across the United States were arrested and charged with holding teenaged girls against their will to work as prostitutes in one of the largest human trafficking cases in American history.
The alleged perpetrators will be charged with sex crimes, but the systematic kidnapping and forced prostitution of young girls remains all too common in the world and across the U.S. In fact, according to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, there are more individuals living in slavery today than at the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This terrifying epidemic is robbing thousands of young people of their childhood, and most often, the victims are young women.
Fighting human trafficking has become one of the great civil and human rights issues of our generation. That is why yesterday, August 1, I participated in a convening of the NGO community in Washington D.C., to discuss the issues of trafficking and forced prostitution at home and abroad, and how community groups can collectively organize to raise awareness about and combat human trafficking. The discussion was organized by the United Way World Wide, and included representatives from the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, among others.
At the Girl Scouts of the USA, we are committed to combatting trafficking in two ways: by building girls of confidence and strength who become leaders in their communities, and by helping girls organize and join other girls to raise awareness and develop Gold Award Projects to advocate against human trafficking and exploitation.
Throughout the Girl Scout Movement, there are girls doing amazing things on the issue of human trafficking: in Jupiter, Florida, a local Girl Scout helped enact state legislation that imposes tougher penalties on those convicted of human trafficking.
In Arizona, a Girl Scout developed a national effort to inform people about human trafficking, launching a program called "Girls Empowering and Mentoring with Support," or GEMS for short, which helps girls raise awareness of the issue within communities. The group was so effective that a pilot program has been developed that teams GEMS members with Girl Guides in Honduras around the issue of sex trafficking.
These are just some of the many things Girl Scouts throughout the country are doing to take action against human trafficking. But the story that will stay with me forever belongs a young woman from the Girl Scout Movement who was herself a victim of sex trafficking. She was born in South America, and sold by her own family for $1,000. She was one of the "lucky ones" who was able to escape that life, and eventually, found her way into our Movement.
When I think about what this remarkable young lady has had to overcome -- the unbelievable hardship she has faced, and her iron will to rise above it -- I am simply in awe. Through Girl Scouting, she found a family -- a sisterhood that gave her comfort and strength, and propelled her to achieve. She found an outlet for expression, a platform to channel her passion into a project that built a library program that teaches Latino immigrants to read and write English.
This is what we do. This is what the Girl Scout Movement can help girls achieve. This is why it is so important that faith-based groups, government entities and community organizations like the Girl Scouts extend their reach to the farthest corners of our world. The scourge of human trafficking can be taken on, and it can be defeated, but only when we recognize that, at its core, it is a problem that must be fought one community, one girl, at a time.
At the Girl Scouts of the USA, we are proud to stand with those who are on the front lines of this battle. It's a war we must win, for ourselves, and our daughters.
 

Follow Anna Maria Chavez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AnnaMariaChavez

Friday, August 2, 2013

Human trafficking investigators play catchup as criminals go hi-tech

Human trafficking investigators play catchup as criminals go hi-tech

Police are having to learn new techniques to keep up with the criminals using smartphones for sex and labour trafficking
mdg: cybercrime in moldova
Human trafficking investigators have been forced to adapt quickly in an increasingly digital age. Photograph: Alamy
In June, law enforcement authorities in Chişinău, the Moldovan capital, received an email from a parent reporting that their child had been kidnapped. Police and prosecutors traced the message to the kidnapper, a skill that is becoming essential in an increasingly digital age.
Thankfully, it was only a training exercise. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) visited Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, at the request of authorities there, who were ill-equipped to deal with an increase in cybercrime and internet-based human trafficking.
UNODC provided three days of training in basic forensic techniques, such as tracing a criminal across the internet and finding images and other information on a locked computer.
"[It's] old-fashioned detective work in a digital age," Adam Palmer, a senior expert in cybercrime and emerging crimes at UNODC, told IPS.
Though official figures on human trafficking are notoriously hard to come by due to the crime's secretive nature, the International Labour Organisation estimates that 21 million people worldwide are forced into labour, including 4.5 million victims of forced sexual exploitation.
With the pressure of emerging technologies, anti-trafficking organisations, as well as law enforcement agencies, need to adapt their knowledge of new techniques and devices used by criminals. Smartphones are a new phenomenon; a couple of years ago the majority of crimes were being committed on desktop computers, Palmer said. "Now, nearly every crime seems to have some kind of phone involved in it."
For authorities in Moldova, a tier two-ranked country in the US state department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, many of the training exercises were new. Before the ubiquity of electronic devices, vital information might have been written in a notebook, Palmer said. Now, police are more likely to have to crack codes, with information saved on password-protected devices.
But the problem of internet-based sex trafficking – the use of the web for the recruitment, advertisement and sale of people, overwhelmingly women – is not confined to Moldova. It is also an issue in developed countries including the US.
Amy Fleischauer, director of victim services at the International Institute of Buffalo, a group that helps immigrants and refugees settle in western New York state, has found survivors of sex and labour trafficking being recruited and advertised via the internet. The institute spends time with survivors so they know how easily they can be tracked through Facebook, GPS on their phones and their internet history.
It is important to realise the relationship between sex and labour trafficking, Fleischauer said. She described a number of cases involving agricultural workers in the US, where brothels were established on farms to "satisfy workers". "Sex trafficking almost always involves labour trafficking," Fleischauer said, "focusing on just sex trafficking does a disservice to victims."
Increased awareness of trafficking through the internet has caught the attention of companies that run the web, and whose products are being used to facilitate the crime. "The most effective way to investigate cybercrime is … to work with private sector companies," Palmer said, pointing out that companies were willing to help, as traffickers were abusing their technology.
Jacquelline Fuller, director of giving at Google, said the company had a "longstanding interest" in helping to combat child exploitation and trafficking over the internet. "More recently, we took a deep dive to see … how we could help," she said.
Google has provided several grants, including one for $11.5m (£7.5m), to help three anti-trafficking organisations – Polaris ProjectLa Strada International and Liberty Asia – work together to more effectively combat the crime.
In April, Google gave $3m to help fund the Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network, and two internet companies, Salesforce and Palantir Technologies, and provided technology that allows the organisations to share data. "[These groups can] use technology to get ahead of the bad guys," Fuller said.
Bradley Myles has seen first hand the changing face of sex trafficking. The chief executive of Polaris Project, a US-based non-profit that works directly with survivors of human trafficking, Myles told IPS that from 2005 to 2008, Craigslist was one of the worst channels for internet-based sex trafficking. After Craigslist removed many of the advertisements that led to women and girls being exploited.
The extent of internet-based trafficking is unknown, according to Fleischauer, but increased awareness and getting police better educated on types of cases, recruitment and strategies could help. "I think we have no idea what's out there," she said.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

CBS4 Investigates: Safe House Shuttered After Child Assaulted

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/07/31/cbs4-investigates-safe-house-shuttered-after-child-assaulted/

CBS4 Investigates: Safe House Shuttered After Child Assaulted

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Kristi House Short Term Safe House was closed after a child was sexually assaulted, CBS4 News has learned. (CBS4)
Kristi House Short Term Safe House was closed after a child was sexually assaulted, CBS4 News has learned. (CBS4)

MIAMI (CBS4) – A child sex trafficking victim, placed under the care of the Department of Children and Families, was raped just days after being sent to a newly opened Miami “safe house,” CBS4 News has learned.
The “safe house” quietly closed after the April assault and child advocates say they are now rethinking their plans to house trafficking victims together in an unsecure group home setting.
“We need to regroup,” admitted Gilda Ferradaz, the regional administrator for DCF in Miami. “We decided not to put any more kids into the safe house until these issues were resolved.”
A state legislator who sponsored last year’s bill creating the safe houses told CBS4’s Jim DeFede he was unaware the house had been closed and dismayed to learn a child was assaulted.
“It’s incredibly sad to me that this girl, that this child really, who had already suffered the trauma of being trafficked sexually went through the system and then for whatever reason ended up a victim again,” said State Representative Erik Fresen.
Fresen’s bill, House Bill 99: The Safe Harbor Act, was passed unanimously by the Legislature last year. Gov Rick Scott signed the law amid great fanfare during a bill signing ceremony in Miami.
“We must do everything possible to protect the victims of this detestable practice and offer them a chance for a healthy and safe future,” Scott said.
Shortly afterward, Senator Marco Rubio and his wife toured what would be South Florida’s first safe house and held a press conference afterward declaring it a significant advancement in the efforts to help victims of human trafficking.
But ten days after that safe house opened one of the girls wandered away from the house without supervision and was raped.
The assault, and a series of other incidents in which girls placed in the house ran away, prompted DCF to reconsider its approach.
“This is new to everybody,” said Ferradaz, the DCF administrator. “The regular licensing, the regular training, isn’t going to be enough for these kids.”
CBS4 News has learned since The Safe Harbor Act went into effect, one other safe house was opened in Florida near Tampa. That house has also closed after experiencing similar problems. There are currently no safe houses operating in the state.
When the Safe Harbor law passed last year it was seen as a major step forward by child advocates.
A key component of the measure was recognizing that juvenile prostitutes are not criminals but rather victims of sexual exploitation who need to be treated outside the criminal justice system.  The safe houses were designed as a place for the children to be housed while they received treatment and counseling.
The law was spearheaded by Kristi House – a non-profit agency that aids victims of child abuse in all its forms. The bill signing took place at Kristi House and joining the governor were Attorney General Pam Bondi, Fresen and an array of elected officials.
As soon as the law went into effect, Kristi House applied for a license to operate the safe house in South Florida. DCF granted them a license on March 15. Kristi House and the safe house opened its doors in a refurbished house in Little Haiti on April 1.
“These children have had psychological trauma that is incomparable to that of the regular foster system and as such it was recognized,” Fresen said. “If we can create these kind of safe harbors, these kind of safe houses, that are particularly geared and staffed by folks that understand that kind of specific trauma associated with being sexually trafficked, we should try and promote that as much as possible.”
“Let’s find ways we can protect these children,” said Frances Allegra, the CEO of Our Kids of Miami-Dade and Monroe, the agency DCF hired to oversee its foster and group homes. “These are girls that are in actual fear, not just for their own safety, but it is sort of like gangland style they are in fear for their entire family unit.”
That fear makes them act irrationally. In some cases they want to run back to the pimps. And in some cases the girls would try to encourage or even “recruit” other girls to rejoin them going back to their pimps.
And it soon became obvious the safe houses were ill equipped to stop them.
The unintended consequence of treating them as victims – and not wanting to treat them as criminals – is the law doesn’t allow DCF to keep them locked up inside the safe house. So the girls came and went as they pleased.
Allegra said they tried adding extra staff to the safe house, but the problems persisted. “After a while we realized the girls were still going to run,” Allegra said. “They were not buying in.”
Everyone was hoping the safe house would work.
“When you open new residential programs, especially for these tough populations, you find a lot of turmoil, a lot of chaos and a lot of experimentation,” she said. “`Is this working? Let’s try this.’ This was a new model, it was new for Florida and it was new for Miami.”
Trudy Novicki, the executive director of Kristi House, declined a request for an interview. Instead she issued the following statement:
“The Kristi House Short Term Safe House was opened after an extensive licensing process with DCF on April 1 under the Safe Harbor law, with the support of many legislators, advocates and major private funders. Six girls stayed at the house during its first 10 weeks, and our experience demonstrated that they liked being at the Safe House and built rapport with our staff.”
The statement continued: “Based on conversations with DCF and Our Kids, we decided to suspend residential operations following incidents of the girls leaving the house without permission, although each returned voluntarily after a short time. Run-away behavior is expected during the recovery process for girls who have been victimized, and is a chronic issue among teenagers in foster care in general. While we are prohibited by law from discussing any particular case, client, or incident, it’s important to know that we are taking the time to reassess the residential model and determine the best path forward to provide a safe environment and the intensive treatment needed for these children.”
Although Kristi House’s statement says the safe house remained open for ten weeks, Allegra said it only had girls in the shelter for “five or six” weeks and that a total of five girls went through the house before it closed.
Allegra and DCF say they are still committed to opening additional safe houses in South Florida. They say they will take this experience and try to build on it.
One lesson they learned, Allegra said, is that in retrospect, placing the safe house in Little Haiti may have been a mistake. The pimps soon discovered where it was and made it even harder to keep the girls safe.
Another issue that needs to be addressed: Should the safe houses be allowed to keep the girls and boys locked down inside the home.
State Representative Fresen said he would be willing to introduce a bill next year allowing involuntary confinement if the experts thought it was necessary.
“Maybe we have to look at whether or not we have to secure the house itself,” Fresen said. “And even though we’re trying to move away from the concept of imprisoning the child – maybe, for a certain period of time, they should be in a more secured, locked in environment.”
It is a move that Allegra knows would be highly controversial.
“We all underestimated the power of that trauma bond [between the child and the pimp],” Allegra said. “That’s why a lot of people who normally wouldn’t be thinking this are now thinking maybe we should be able to restrain them, hold them, lock them up for a period of time until we can deprogram them.”
“I don’t know what the right thing to do is,” she continued, “but my instincts are I want to do what I can to protect these children. I wish I had the tools necessary to protect these children. And if they are doing something that is dangerous then I should be able to protect them whether they want to buy into it or not.
“So should I be able to lock them up? A lot of advocates will hate me for saying that but what they are doing is threatening their lives and I would rather see a girl in a safe place where she can’t leave than risking her lives on the street.”
As child advocates debate what should happen next, the child victim who was raped when she ran from the safe house remains under state care.