Gals told 'don't go' to work in Vegas, August 5, USA

Working Group on Nevada Trafficking: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nv/home/pressrelease/september2004/trafficking092804.htm

Conference:

Event Detail

Human Trafficking Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada

Dates: October 08, 2007 to October 10, 2007

Venue Information

Orleans Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Event Details

Some of the topics for this conference will be

• Prosecuting Traffickers;
• Trafficking Investigations;
• Pimp/Prostitute Subculture;
• working with Victims.

Break out sessions will be available.

• Assistant US Attorneys Chris Wilton and Erica MacDonald
• Dr Sharon Cooper
• Dr. Lois Lee-Founder Children of the Night
• Det. Keith Haight- Los Angeles Police Dept
• Sgt Vic Vigna-Las Metro Police Dept
• Lt. Mary Petri San Francisco Police Dept
  

Please visit our site at www.teachcops.com for more conference information and registration.

ARTICLE BEGIN:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/08/05/4395398-sun.html

Gals told 'don't go' to work in Vegas

Alberta woman's disappearance now looks like case of human trafficking

By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA

Carol-Lynn Strachan shudders whenever she hears of Edmonton prostitutes going to work in Las Vegas.

"I tell them don't go, and find out who you're working for," said Strachan, a local sex-trade advocate.

Strachan's concern is the rise in human-trafficking cases in the Las Vegas sex trade.

Just recently, authorities there revealed they believe Jessie Foster, an Alberta woman missing since March 2006, is the victim of a possible trafficking ring.

"This sounds like a really bad detective movie that never ends," said her father, Dwight Foster, from Calgary yesterday.

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Dwight called his daughter's case a "textbook" example of trafficking in which a pimp lures young women to places like Las Vegas with the promise of bright lights and big money.

Once they get to Sin City, they essentially become slaves to pay off the pimp for bringing them there.

"The problem is the debt keeps rising. The debt never goes away," said Terri Miller, program director with the Las Vegas-based organization, the Anti Trafficking League Against Slavery.

In Foster's case, the 21-year-old went to Las Vegas in order to join her boyfriend, Peter Todd, who told her he had lots of money and who at first showered her with a life of luxury, Dwight said.

Since she went missing in March 2006, however, the family has since learned she had earlier been arrested for prostitution.

What makes a sex worker a victim of trafficking is the element of coercion and fraud, said Miller. Victims can't leave the trade because of the debt, and in many cases they're kept hidden and cut off from family and friends.

"Most of the time, there's some sort of threat against their safety, the safety of their family," said Miller.

The only way out of the trap, she added, is to pay off the debt or get help from an organization like hers.

Tragically, though, some victims end up dead either through suicide or murder, Miller noted.

Like Strachan, JoAnn McCartney, a former Edmonton vice cop who counsels prostitutes, warns local sex workers about the lure of Las Vegas. She's been involved in incidents where parents have had to sneak plane or bus tickets to their daughters trying to escape controlling pimps.

"They're subject to a whole lot of violence once they get there," she said.

"The only thing you can tell them is (that) whatever sounds too good to be true probably is," she added.

Foster's mother Glendene Grant, meanwhile, said the fact her daughter is now considered a suspected victim of a trafficking ring means police in Las Vegas are now taking her case more seriously.

"It's not just a person who went to Las Vegas who wandered off. It's a whole lot bigger than that," she said yesterday from Kamloops, B.C.

While both she and Dwight are prepared for the fact Foster may be dead, they hope her case will at least make people aware of the dangers of trafficking.

"It's a little late for my daughter, but if we can get to and educate one girl, then we've made inroads," said Dwight.

Sidney Ford: Time is now for Baltimore to add a prostitution court, USA, August 2

Sidney Ford: Time is now for Baltimore to add a prostitution court

Aug 2, 2007 3:00 AM (1 day ago)
by Sidney Ford, The Examiner

BALTIMORE ( Map, News) - A small group from the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, advocacy organizations and neighborhood associations recently visited a community court in Washington. We wanted to learn more about how Baltimore might develop a “prostitution court.” The courts are designed to break the cycle of prostitution-related incarceration and suffering through specifically designed services and partnership with the judicial system.

A young woman who had successfully completed substance abuse treatment and other requirements of her probation stood before one of the judges that day. She was to be released from further obligations to the court, but was clearly still traumatized by her chaotic behavior. Like our best judges, this one praised her worthy efforts, and encouraged her to continue to lead a productive life. When asked if she had anything to say, she whispered, “thank you, judge. Please, just don’t hurt me anymore.”

This notion of being hurt by the system, while also being helped by it, struck a chord with me. I’ve met so many women and girls who are forced into prostitution by circumstances larger than their own personal decisions and are kept there, often in enormous pain, by individuals and systems which in many ways prevent their escape.

Children who feel abandoned and abused frequently run away from home ­ often into the arms of strangers who say they care, but then abuse them. One of our clients, “Casey,” was given to the landlord by her mother each month in lieu of rent when she was 9 years old. He raped her and then returned her to her mother. Casey’s attempts to tell others about this nightmare were unsuccessful. She ran away at 13 and was prostituted by a series of men and women ­ “high class” pimps ­ who ran a lucrative escort service in Las Vegas, and then by street-level pimps here in Baltimore. Eventually, however, Casey healed enough to leave “the life.”

The prostitution court, with specially trained judges, prosecutors and other court personnel, and the inclusion of experienced service providers, may represent the only hope that many of Casey’s sisters have to lead a life worth living.

Law-abiding citizens rightly want the scourge stopped; women living through the on-going trauma that is prostitution want to have real choices and change. However, without adequate housing, effective substance abuse treatment, trauma-focused mental health counseling, life skills training and appropriate health, education and employment resources, the women may continue to believe the lie that they must “service” the men who troll for illicit sex in some of Baltimore’s most desperate neighborhoods.

Prostituted children (and others caught up in human trafficking) must be rescued and correctly labeled “victims” in this deadly game; women involved in prostitution deserve the chance to prove they can rise above their circumstances.

From a practical standpoint, re-incarceration of such individuals is expensive, far more so than help for them would be. The total costs haven’t been calculated, but with an estimated $3,500 cost for each arrest and brief incarceration, three avoided arrests a year will save more than $10,000 per person for taxpayers. Success in diverting these nonviolent offenders to treatment and care would also lessen the burden on all city law enforcement systems.

We must rise to the occasion by supporting a prostitution court. It will help to ensure Baltimore’s most vulnerable citizens are given the best help our justice system has available and that communities can thrive without the presence of prostitution.

Sidney Ford is director and founder of You Are Never Alone, Maryland’s first organization for women and children exploited through prostitution and human trafficking. She may be reached at yanainc@earthlink.net.