[Senate Hearing 113-396]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 113-396
SEX TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION IN
AMERICA: CHILD WELFARE'S ROLE IN
PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 11, 2013
__________
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COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
MAX BAUCUS, Montana, Chairman
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
Virginia CHUCK GRASSLEY, Iowa
RON WYDEN, Oregon MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington JOHN CORNYN, Texas
BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
ROBERT P. CASEY, Jr., Pennsylvania
Amber Cottle, Staff Director
Chris Campbell, Republican Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Baucus, Hon. Max, a U.S. Senator from Montana, chairman,
Committee on Finance........................................... 1
Hatch, Hon. Orrin G., a U.S. Senator from Utah................... 3
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., a U.S. Senator from Maryland........... 5
CONGRESSIONAL WITNESS
Blumenthal, Hon. Richard, a U.S. Senator from Connecticut........ 5
WITNESSES
Graves, Asia, Maryland outreach services coordinator and survivor
advocate, FAIR Girls, Baltimore, MD............................ 6
Guymon, Michelle, Probation Director, Los Angeles County
Probation Department, Innocence Lost LA Task Force, Los
Angeles, CA.................................................... 9
Goldfarb, Susan, executive director, Children's Advocacy Center
of Suffolk County, Boston, MA.................................. 11
Katz, Hon. Joette, J.D., Commissioner, Connecticut Department of
Children and Families, Hartford, CT............................ 13
ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL
Baucus, Hon. Max:
Opening statement............................................ 1
Prepared statement........................................... 39
Blumenthal, Hon. Richard:
Testimony.................................................... 5
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L.:
Opening statement............................................ 5
Goldfarb, Susan:
Testimony.................................................... 11
Prepared statement........................................... 41
Grassley, Hon. Chuck:
Prepared statement........................................... 45
Graves, Asia:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 47
Guymon, Michelle:
Testimony.................................................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 52
Hatch, Hon. Orrin G.:
Opening statement............................................ 3
Prepared statement........................................... 56
Katz, Hon. Joette, J.D.:
Testimony.................................................... 13
Prepared statement........................................... 58
Communications
Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST).................. 67
County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA)........ 75
National Children's Alliance..................................... 79
SEX TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION IN
AMERICA: CHILD WELFARE'S ROLE IN
PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION
----------
TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2013
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Finance,
Washington, DC.
The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 10:04
a.m., in room SD-215, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Max
Baucus (chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Senators Wyden, Schumer, Stabenow, Cantwell,
Nelson, Cardin, Brown, Casey, Hatch, Thune, Portman, and
Toomey.
Also present: Democratic Staff: Amber Cottle, Staff
Director; Mac Campbell, General Counsel; David Schwartz, Chief
Health Counsel; Diedra Henry-Spires, Professional Staff Member;
and Rory Murphy, International Trade Analyst. Republican Staff:
Becky Shipp, Health Policy Advisor; and Shannon Crowley,
Special Assistant.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MAX BAUCUS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM
MONTANA, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
The Chairman. The committee will come to order.
Abraham Lincoln said, ``If slavery is not wrong, nothing is
wrong.'' Slavery in any form is an injustice that we must stop.
Our country has fought long and bloody wars to end slavery,
both at home and abroad, but unfortunately not all forms of
slavery have been abolished in America.
Human trafficking, which includes both labor and sex
trafficking, is not unique to third-world countries. It exists
right here in America. It is quickly becoming one of the
fastest-growing criminal industries in the world. Twenty-seven
million people are bought and sold into slavery each year, many
of them children. At least 100,000 children are exploited every
year in the United States. Most of these kids are only between
12 and 14 years old.
This committee has jurisdiction over the Nation's foster
care and adoption system. Today we will focus our attention on
the children most vulnerable to trafficking predators: foster
children. Fifty to eighty percent of the children who are
exploited and sold each year in America are connected to the
foster care system. The tough background and unstable
upbringing of many foster youth increase their risk of
exploitation.
These children frequently suffer from a history of
emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. They are typically moved
from place to place with little or no warning. These factors,
combined with a desire for love and affection and a lack of
appropriate adult supervision, increase their risk of
exploitation.
However, all young people can become victims of this crime.
We will hear today from a survivor of this horrific crime, Ms.
Asia Graves. She will share with us her firsthand experience.
This abuse even occurs in my home State of Montana, often
referred to as one big small town, a place where we pride
ourselves on old-fashioned values, a place where we know our
neighbors and look out for each other. Yet, we are not immune.
I will share with you the story of one Montanan, a young
woman whom I will refer to as Kay. Kay was born and raised in a
solid family from Kalispell. She was an exceptional young
person with everything in place for a bright future.
At 15, she met a handsome and charismatic man at a high
school party. He slipped a drug into her drink. He sold Kay for
sex in exchange for money and for drugs. We cannot imagine her
horror upon waking. She was not the same. She had no one to
turn to. The young man used her fear and depression to isolate
her. Kay became addicted to heroin and was repeatedly sold to
her own peers for drugs and for money.
Thanks to Windie Jo Fischer, a local outreach worker, Kay
was able to escape. Windie knew what Kay was going through.
Why? Because Windie had survived a similar experience at age
13. Today, Kay is doing well.
Still, too many young women just like Kay continue to
suffer. The Bakken oil boom in Montana and North Dakota has
brought thousands of jobs and economic activity. But the
population spike has also brought increased crime, drugs, gun
crime, and prostitution.
Victims are difficult to identify. They are often coerced
and threatened into silence. Difficulty, though, is not an
excuse for inaction. We should not sit by and allow any more
children to suffer in silence. These are our sons and our
daughters, and it is our job to protect them.
That is what today's hearing is about. We are here to
expose this horrific problem and find out what more we should
be doing to keep our kids safe. Too often, sexually exploited
children have nowhere to go. The people they turn to do not
know how to handle these cases. As a result, sex trafficking
victims are often arrested and placed in juvenile detention.
But raped and abused children should not be treated as
criminals.
The juvenile justice system is making progress, but law
enforcement needs the help and expertise of social workers,
mental health professionals, judges, and teachers to find the
right solutions for vulnerable children. It is time for the
child welfare system to do its part to end sex trafficking.
Today's witnesses will tell us about the limitations of the
current system to help victims. As a Nation, though, we have
the responsibility to protect our girls and boys. The people
who are buying and selling our children must be stopped.
As Abraham Lincoln said, ``If slavery is not wrong, nothing
is wrong.'' For as long as slavery exists in any form, we must
fight to end it.
I will say that I am sorry to interrupt here, but, before
we move on to introducing our panel, I would like to remind
Senators that around 10:30 we will turn to the nomination of
Michael Froman. Michael Froman is nominated to be the U.S.
Trade Representative.
He testified before this committee last Thursday and
responded to 150 questions for the record over the weekend. I
believe Mr. Froman is the right man to lead the USTR, and he
deserves our support. Again, at the appropriate moment, we will
have to break so we can report out the nomination of Michael
Froman.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Baucus appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Senator Hatch?
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ORRIN G. HATCH,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM UTAH
Senator Hatch. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding
this important hearing on domestic sex trafficking of children
and youth. This disturbing issue is very relevant to child
welfare programs under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance
Committee.
Domestic sex trafficking, primarily of young girls, has
recently received widespread public attention; however, much
remains unclear about the instances, causes, and potential
solutions regarding this growing problem.
For example, there is a shortage of reliable statistical
data on how many American girls are sexually trafficked. Some
estimates put the number of girls at risk for sexual
exploitation at nearly 300,000. If it is true that hundreds of
thousands of girls may be at risk, it is particularly troubling
that only a few hundred have been identified and recovered.
Some of these at-risk children are officially known to the
child welfare system as ``thrown away'' children.
These are children whose parents have either kicked them
out of the house or abandoned them to the State. When these
children are trafficked and come to the attention of child
welfare agencies, the agencies often do not perform proper
screening because the child is not in the custody of their
parents. This is an appalling situation.
Now, Mr. Chairman, I think we can all agree that no child
should ever be thrown away. Individuals on the front lines in
the fight against trafficking report that instances of domestic
sex trafficking are on the rise. They tell us that former drug
dealers have moved on to sex trafficking.
They also tell us that technological advances have made
this type of trafficking even easier. Smart phones and other
devices provide distance and increased levels of anonymity, and
certain websites that post classified ads soliciting sexual
partners also help facilitate trafficking.
Reports indicate that girls in foster care are at an
increased risk of being trafficked. Indeed, girls in foster
care are especially vulnerable to the advances of traffickers.
This is because a girl in foster care is more likely to have
experienced neglect or abuse, which increases her risk.
Traffickers will initially present themselves to these girls as
a boyfriend who slowly provides indoctrination. Once
trafficking commences, the girl may run away from her foster or
group home.
In many States, when a youth in foster care turns away, no
one even looks for them. Too often, regardless of whether or
not she was connected to child welfare, if a girl is arrested
for prostitution, she will not be offered services or
treatment.
The majority of trafficked girls are thought to be between
the ages of 12 and 14. Yet, even though the law stipulates that
these girls are too young to give consent, they are often
treated as perpetrators of a crime rather than the victims of
one.
Mr. Chairman, it is simply unacceptable that State child
welfare systems are failing to serve these girls. I recognize
that these may be difficult cases and that the trauma these
children have endured often results in significant challenges,
but we need to do a much better job in addressing their complex
needs.
Congress needs to send clear, unambiguous signals to State
child welfare agencies that they cannot abdicate their
responsibilities that they owe to these young women. This
hearing should put child welfare agencies on notice that they
must begin to work with Congress and with the stakeholders in
the field to properly identify and provide appropriate
prevention and intervention services to victims of domestic sex
trafficking and exploitation.
There are promising practices at the State level, and there
are agencies that are on the right track in identifying,
preventing, and intervening in these cases. This hearing will
highlight some of these practices and hopefully provide us with
suggestions for improvements at the Federal level.
I know that the chairman shares my view that the child
welfare system in the United States is in desperate need of
reform. For one thing, the financing structure of child welfare
is misaligned. The majority of Federal dollars is directed at
the least desirable outcome: removing children from their homes
and placing them with strangers. I believe that the qualitative
and systemic flaws in our current foster care system are among
the factors that make girls in the foster care system so
vulnerable to traffickers.
Again, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this
critical hearing. I would like to thank all of these witnesses
in advance for your work and for your willingness to engage
this committee on such a difficult subject. I look forward to
your testimonies.
With regard to Mr. Froman, I support him. I believe he will
make a great leader as U.S. Trade Representative. Mr. Chairman,
I am very grateful that you are bringing him up quickly.
Hopefully we will get him to the floor and get him through. I
think he has the right attitude towards this job. He is
certainly a very brilliant man, and one whom I have high hopes
for. So having said that, I am happy to quit my remarks and get
into this hearing, which is really one of the most important
hearings being held this year.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
[The prepared statement of Senator Hatch appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. I am now pleased to welcome our witnesses.
First is Asia Graves, who is the Maryland outreach services
coordinator and survivor advocate at FAIR Girls. Second is
Susan Goldfarb, who is the executive director of the Children's
Advocacy Center of Suffolk County. Michelle Guymon is the
Probation Director at the Los Angeles County Probation
Department. And Joette Katz is the Commissioner of the
Connecticut Department of Children and Families. We are very
fortunate today to have two colleagues here who care a lot
about children's issues. They are here to introduce two of our
witnesses, Ms. Graves and Ms. Katz.
So, Senator Cardin, if you want to introduce your witness
at this point.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM MARYLAND
Senator Cardin. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you
very much for holding this hearing. It is my pleasure to
introduce to the committee Asia Graves. She is an incredibly
brave and courageous woman. Asia serves as the Maryland program
coordinator and survivor advocate for FAIR Girls in Baltimore,
where she works tirelessly to prevent the exploitation of
girls, with empowerment and education.
Asia's story, which she will share in a moment, is truly
harrowing. She experienced something that no human should ever
have to experience. What she experienced could have broken her,
but she endured and survived, relating her story and using her
experience to help children avoid or overcome equally harrowing
experiences. By reliving her own nightmares, Asia is ensuring
that fewer people will have to live through their own
nightmare.
Asia has described human trafficking as the seminal human
rights issue, and I could not agree more. As you pointed out,
the Department of Justice estimates that hundreds of thousands
of children are commercially trafficked each year.
Most of these children are quite young, the majority being
between the ages of 12 and 14. Asia herself was 16 years of
age. It is a modern form of slavery. The victims are victims,
and law enforcement needs to be better educated so they are not
prosecuted and victimized a second time.
This problem exists in the United States. We have our
Trafficking in Persons report that is published annually that
points out many of the origin countries and transit countries.
I am proud of the work of the U.S. Helsinki Commission in
highlighting those concerns, but there are also destination
countries that need to do more, including the United States of
America. Asia Gray's testimony here today will point out that
we still have a long way to go in the United States.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Blumenthal, would you like to introduce your
witness?
STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to join
in thanking you for calling attention and shining light on this
pernicious and prevalent problem. Thank you to you and Ranking
Member Hatch. I want to thank Senator Portman for joining me in
forming the Human Trafficking Caucus, a bipartisan caucus
consisting of a number of our colleagues who are focused on
this problem of human trafficking both abroad and at home. It
is, in fact, a scourge. It is a growing problem both abroad and
at home.
The goal of shining this light on the role of child welfare
systems is critically important, because all too often they are
a conduit rather than a savior and protector, in effect
inadvertently an enabler of child trafficking and exploitation.
The role that Commissioner Katz has played in our State has
been extraordinary in improving the services offered by our
Department of Children and Families. She came there after a
very distinguished career on the State Supreme Court, serving
for 18 years as an associate justice. She wrote more than 2,000
opinions, and is an extremely able and talented jurist.
But she has taken over a department that was much in need
of the kind of reforms she implemented--that hopefully others
can use as a model around the country--in addressing the
4,000--and I repeat, 4,000--children who are in her direct care
and custody and 36,000 children whom she aids and helps, along
with 16,000 families, across the State of Connecticut.
So again, my thanks to you for calling attention to this
problem, and I hope that we can continue to work to make sure
that no child is at risk of the exploitation and suffering,
lifetimes of suffering often, that result from this scourge.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senators, both of you. We deeply
appreciate your efforts here.
We will begin now with the witnesses. Ms. Graves, you can
proceed. Our practice here is that each of your written
statements will be automatically included in the record, and
then we urge each of you to summarize your statements in about
5, 6 minutes, whatever works for you.
Ms. Graves?
STATEMENT OF ASIA GRAVES, MARYLAND OUTREACH SERVICES
COORDINATOR AND SURVIVOR ADVOCATE, FAIR GIRLS, BALTIMORE, MD
Ms. Graves. I would like to first thank Chairman Baucus,
Ranking Member Hatch, and the Senate Finance Committee for
giving me the chance to testify at today's hearing, ``Sex
Trafficking and Exploitation in America: Child Welfare's Role
in Prevention and Intervention.''
My name is Asia Graves. I am the prevention education
coordinator for FAIR Girls and survivors of domestic minor sex
trafficking in America. It is an honor to have this opportunity
to speak to you today about what human trafficking looks like
here domestically, how trafficking interacts with the child
welfare system, and to make you understand that a girl who is
involved in human trafficking is a victim in need of long-term
compassionate services. She is not a prostitute or a criminal.
I would first like to start out by telling you my story of
surviving sex trafficking. I believe that I am one of the lucky
few, because I received the care and support I needed to
overcome my past. Then I would like to share with you the work
I do at FAIR Girls to find and empower hundreds more girl
survivors of sex trafficking right here in the Nation's
capital.
As a survivor of sex trafficking, I no longer consider
myself to be a victim. As you know, the average age of entry is
only 13 years old. My life as a victim of sex trafficking began
at 16. I was already battling things that no child should ever
experience. I did not have a positive support system.
My family did not care for me, and my teachers and the
social workers who met me did not see the warning signs. By the
time my pimp sold me, I was isolated and scared, which is
exactly what most girls feel as they fall victim. At 16, I was
living with my mother, who was addicted to crack cocaine and
herself a victim of years of abuse. I did not know what else to
do, so I moved in with my father, who was an alcoholic. I did
not know that my life would turn upside down.
My dad told me that I had to pay $900 a month in rent or I
would be thrown out. How was I supposed to come up with that at
16? I got a job working as many hours as I could, even missed
school. When I could not pay the rent, my father threw me out.
So, with no place to go, in January of 2004, during one of
the biggest snow storms in Boston's history, I went out to
dinner with a group of young ladies whom I was living with in a
one-bedroom apartment. While I lived with them, they took me to
dinner and left me at the restaurant and made me walk outside,
where there were a group of pimps who approached me. I tried to
run away, but I could not get away.
There was a young, nice-looking guy who approached me and
told me that I was too beautiful to be outside in this snow,
so, with no place to go, I actually went with him. I felt that
was my best option, better than sleeping on a park bench in the
snow. For the first week, everything was a fairy tale, full of
romance, good food, and a place to sleep.
But then things changed. After a week, he told me that he
was a pimp and I was his property. When I told him I wanted to
leave, he beat me for the first time. Then he called an escort
service, took naked pictures of me, and put me on their
website. Men came to the hotel and had sex with me. He told me
that he would kill me or let these men kill me if I did not
have sex.
Two weeks later, he took me to the track, which is a place
where pimps sell girls like me, and made me work all night,
rain or snow, even if I was sick. He said that if I did not,
then he would kill my family. He sold me to several pimps that
had sex with me and forced me to have sex with other men.
My story is sad, but it is common, and there are girls like
me all around. But people do not see them, so they remain
victims.
Three years passed. Pimp after pimp, beating after beating
and feeling like I would never be free and feeling like maybe I
was not even worth this world, I did not even feel like I was
worth a $3.00 Happy Meal.
After being beaten in the head with an iron, sexually
assaulted with a hair brush, I had enough. I was pregnant. I
wanted my baby. I wanted someone to love me for me. I tried to
run but was held hostage at gunpoint.
When I finally escaped, I spoke to the first officer I
could find. My traffickers took their revenge out on me. I
thought I was safe in staying with a friend, but the next
morning my trafficker sent four women with steel-toed
Timberland boots to assault me. They knew that I was pregnant.
They kicked me all over my stomach and left me beaten on the
sidewalk. I lost my baby and felt like garbage. I could have
died, but something inside me said to fight.
I walked to the nearest police station and met an officer
named Sergeant Kelly O'Connell, who met me at the door. She
knew my trafficker. During an interview, I started to miscarry,
and Kelly O'Connell took me to the hospital.
Honestly, I was blessed to have found Kelly O'Connell and a
group of investigators to believe in me and my story. I did not
wake up one morning and say, ``I want to be a prostitute.'' No
girl does. There is no such thing as a child prostitute,
because legally children cannot consent to sex. No girl chooses
to be a slave, yet girls like me are the faces of modern-day
slavery in America. You might ask how this is possible. It is
because 80 to 90 percent of victims are sexually abused. That
is my story. I was raped from the age of 6 by my mother's drug
dealer. I was vulnerable.
I wanted to start off by giving you guys some
recommendations that I feel are key. The first of three
critical changes we need is funding to open specialized foster
homes where girls who are sold into sex slavery can actually be
rescued and taken care of.
Second, every social worker and teacher should be educated
on how to see the red flags and report a victim.
Third, every high-risk youth, mostly girls, notably in the
child welfare system, needs to be educated on how to stay safe
from sex trafficking.
The first critical change is to open specialized foster
homes where girls and boys sold into sex slavery can truly
receive the compassionate care they deserve. Oftentimes at FAIR
Girls we have no place for these young girls to go. We do our
best with our partners, but many times we are hiding in hotels
with girls looking for a safehouse.
This is not how a victim of slavery who has been freed
should spend her first night. Many FAIR Girls and many social
service agencies nationwide have a staff and vision to create
specialized safehouses, but we need the resources to launch and
sustain them. I think you could help us make that happen.
Second, every social worker and teacher needs to be
educated on how to identify and assist trafficking victims of
sex slavery. FAIR Girls is a member of the DC Anti-Trafficking
Task Force, and we have educated hundreds of law enforcement
officers, social workers, and educators in victim
identification.
We can only truly help American children keep safe and keep
them safe if their adult support systems are educated and given
the tools they need to understand the warning signs before a
child is victimized. I often wonder, how could this have
happened? What would have happened if one of my teachers or
social workers would have intervened and taken action before I
was sold to pimps all over America? This is not an expensive
training, but it is lifesaving.
Third, children, their teachers, and the social workers
need to be educated nationwide on how to stay safe from sex
trafficking. As prevention and education coordinator at FAIR
Girls, I have educated thousands of teen girls and boys in
foster care, schools, and detention centers. This curriculum
has educated more than 4,000 children nationwide.
Children in the child welfare system are the most at risk
and absolutely have to be educated on how to avoid being sold
into sex trafficking. Had someone like me come to my school
when I was 16, maybe my story of exploitation would have never
happened. Recently, one teen mom came to me saying that she was
being pressured by her older boyfriend to strip because she
needed the money.
I was able to join up with her schoolteacher and the child
welfare advocate to stop her from falling into sex trafficking.
FAIR Girls has hundreds of stories just like hers. I work
directly with DC and Maryland child welfare agencies, and this
evidenced-based partnership model could be emulated with the
right services.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today, and
there are many more stories I would like to share, as I believe
passionately in the rights of the many girl survivors that we
serve at FAIR Girls. I am open to questions. I consider today
to be the beginning of a wonderful dialogue that will lead to
creating new resources to help girls like me.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Graves. We thank you for your
courage.
Ms. Graves. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Graves appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Ms. Guymon?
STATEMENT OF MICHELLE GUYMON, PROBATION DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES
COUNTY PROBATION DEPARTMENT, INNOCENCE LOST LA TASK FORCE, LOS
ANGELES, CA
Ms. Guymon. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank
you for raising awareness of sex trafficking and exploitation
in America. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you
today.
My name is Michelle Guymon. I am a Probation Director with
Los Angeles County, the largest county in the Nation. I have
worked in LA County for nearly 25 years within the Probation
Department. Today I would like to tell you a little bit about
how I was a member of Juvenile Justice and began working on
this issue. I would also like to address how Probation is
beginning to partner with Child Welfare to prevent this crime
and safeguard survivors.
In 2010, as a part of my role in our Probation Department,
I was serving on our Interagency Council on Child Abuse and
Neglect committee. I was asked by a judge to be a part of a
subcommittee on sex trafficking. I am not sure how you tell a
judge ``no,'' but I agreed to go ahead and be on the committee.
While I had no idea as a probation officer why our
department would be involved in human trafficking, I thought, I
love to travel. Who would not want to go to Thailand,
Indonesia, or Cambodia?
Then November 16, 2010 came. I remember the date so
vividly, because it was the day that changed my life. It was
the first meeting of the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking
Subcommittee. It was there that I learned that this
exploitation was not something that happened thousands of miles
away in a foreign country; in fact, it was happening right here
in our community to the very young girls I was charged to
protect.
The next few days were difficult for me emotionally. I
reflected on the many young girls who had crossed my path
because they had been brought into Juvenile Justice on
prostitution-related charges. Like many people within and
outside the system, I had judged them.
What made it particularly difficult for me is that I have a
master's degree in social work. I took pride in my ability to
connect with young people. I felt I was a good therapist and
felt that we did a lot of great work, dealing with amazing
young women who had experienced significant trauma.
But I missed this trauma. This sexual abuse experienced by
many young girls was not a direct correlation to why they chose
to sell their bodies, but rather the very reason they were at
such great risk for sexual exploitation. How did I not make
this connection? To be honest, I beat myself up for a long time
but realized I could not change the past. From that day to
this, my mantra has been, and will be, when you know better,
you have to do better.
Over the past 2 years, we have worked hard to bring
awareness to Los Angeles County, both inside and outside the
system. One member of our board of supervisors, Don Knabe, was
integral in the launch of a public awareness campaign in our
metro system in the places where girls were most vulnerable.
We have created video messages and done countless media
interviews, because public awareness is critical. Until we as a
society begin to shift our thinking from ``teen prostitute'' to
``victims of sexual exploitation,'' nothing will change for
these young women.
Therefore, we must develop systems and protocols to
identify these children much earlier. Because so many exploited
children have a history in the child welfare system, that
system provides an opportunity for prevention and early
intervention efforts.
However, Child Welfare has expressed many challenges and
barriers to serving victims of sexual exploitation. They
require unique and specialized services that the child welfare
system, at this time, is not built, nor resourced, to
effectively handle. We must fix this. Because of family
dysfunction, many victims are in group homes or shelters. They
run away and are living on the streets.
A pimp or exploiter preys on this vulnerability. Statistics
say that one in three teens will be recruited by a pimp within
48 hours of leaving home and becoming homeless. He may pose as
a boyfriend or parental figure, offering to provide food,
shelter, clothes, security, even love. Later, after that
emotional bond has been established, she is forced to engage in
commercial sexual acts or face brutal physical violence.
Foster youth are extremely susceptible to exploitation due
to their lack of attachment, and their need to belong to
someone. One young girl with whom I have worked grew up in the
foster care system, was adopted, and then sold by her adoptive
mother to sustain her drug habit. She told me, ``I remember the
first time my pimp told me that I would be going to a hotel to
have sex with men. In the pit of my stomach I knew this did not
seem or feel right. I had a really bad feeling, but my need for
love and to really belong to someone was more important.
Because of my own sexual abuse as a child with different men, I
already knew what having sex with men was all about, so I
went.''
No one agency or system can adequately service these
victims alone. Right now we are faced with a major challenge:
how do we identify, develop, and implement a collaborative
response to this growing problem? Again, it starts with a
paradigm shift on how we see these young women. Your hearing
today is evidence of that change happening.
I would like to close with the words of a young victim
survivor we are now working with who recently wrote about her
experiences. She said, ``I would strive to change the law and
how people view young people who are being sold, bought, and
abused. The lifestyle is not a choice for us. Still, people
look at us with disgust. It makes us feel 10 times more
pitiful. What we look like on the outside does not match how we
feel on the inside. Please remember there are hundreds, if not
thousands, of stories similar to mine. So let us help those in
need, not judge and neglect us anymore. Show us that there is
something better for us out there. Give us a chance we have
never had. I will appreciate this more than you could ever
know.''
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Ms. Guymon.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Guymon appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Ms. Goldfarb, you are next.
STATEMENT OF SUSAN GOLDFARB, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CHILDREN'S
ADVOCACY CENTER OF SUFFOLK COUNTY, BOSTON, MA
Ms. Goldfarb. Good morning, Chairman Baucus, Ranking Member
Hatch, and members of the committee. Thank you for the
invitation to join you here today.
My name is Susan Goldfarb. I am the executive director of
the Children's Advocacy Center of Suffolk County, a Boston-
based organization dedicated to healing and justice for child
and teen victims of exploitation and abuse. I am grateful for
the opportunity to testify today on behalf of a once-invisible
population.
As a professional working in the field of child abuse for
more than 25 years, I cannot overstate the need to finally
recognize and address the needs of these incredibly vulnerable
and under-served children.
The commercial sexual exploitation of children, which we
also call CSEC, is a crime of systemized brutality and sexual
assault that is deliberately waged on children with prior
histories of neglect, isolation, and vulnerability.
Historically, these children have been labeled child
prostitutes, treated as criminals, and perhaps even worse,
ignored altogether.
In Boston, I have the privilege of working with the Support
to End Exploitation Now Coalition, also called SEEN, an
initiative of the Children's Advocacy Center, the Office of the
District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, and over 35 governmental
and community-based partners.
SEEN was founded in 2006 with the core beliefs that
commercial sexual exploitation of children is child abuse, not
delinquency, and that exploited youth are child victims, not
criminals. This was a turning point in our community.
Building on these core beliefs, hundreds of professionals
have been trained to recognize and respond to exploitation. As
a result, since 2006 we have identified and served more than
700 high-risk and sexually exploited youth, where before we
were not seeing them at all, and we have learned a great deal.
Also, we now know what we have long suspected: these
children are truly among the most vulnerable. We have learned
that upwards of 70 percent have a history of sexual abuse,
physical abuse and/or neglect, and child welfare involvement.
Roughly 65 percent have a history of running away, and
nearly 60 percent of the children were 15 years or younger at
the time that they were referred to us. Traffickers know this
vulnerability, and they exploit it. It is our responsibility to
prevent and stop them.
So how can we do this? I believe that child welfare
agencies are, and will continue to be, at the center of this
work. As my child welfare colleagues in Boston have said, these
are our kids.
So I would like to outline five challenges that also offer
opportunities. The first is mandated reporting of commercial
sexual exploitation. In most States, exploitation continues to
go unreported to child welfare, but it is a form of child abuse
and should be reported as such in all States.
Second, there is a lack of data. When commercial sexual
exploitation is reported to Child Protective Services, most
child welfare databases classify the reports as sexual abuse or
neglect. There is no category for CSEC. As a result, there is
no mechanism or coding to collect data about how many children
are being served or are in need.
Third, there are limitations within the child welfare
system to serve all exploited children. In most States, child
welfare becomes involved only when an alleged offender is in a
caretaking role. But a pimp is not considered a caretaker, so
the majority of exploitation reports are screened out. A few
States have expanded the scope of their screening to include
adult caretakers who have a child under his or her control.
This change allows exploited youth who have no familial
caretaker in their life to receive the support and services
they need.
Fourth, there is a need for training and development of
agency protocols. While child welfare agencies are already
serving these children, the CSEC is often not recognized.
Training is needed agency-wide to ensure universal screening,
identification, and understanding of the exploited child's
experience, and trauma-
informed service planning. Policies are needed to ensure timely
interagency communication and collaboration between child
welfare, law enforcement, and others when responding to
exploitation.
Finally, we need multi-disciplinary collaboration. On
average, each child victim of commercial sexual exploitation is
involved with three to four agencies. A true safety net
requires consistency, communication, and teamwork across
agencies and systems.
Children's advocacy centers across the Nation are experts
in facilitating collaboration on behalf of abused children, and
are a ready resource to advance this work. These are achievable
changes. There is an astonishing level of public interest in
sex trafficking of children and a growing body of knowledge
regarding best practices. We have an opportunity to leverage
this interest and expertise and make real changes that will
honestly restore and save lives.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Goldfarb, very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Goldfarb appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. The final witness is Ms. Katz. Are you a
judge?
Ms. Katz. I was a judge.
The Chairman. A recovering judge. [Laughter.] Judge Katz,
you are next.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOETTE KATZ, J.D., COMMISSIONER, CONNECTICUT
DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, HARTFORD, CT
Judge Katz. Thank you very much. Chairman Baucus, Ranking
Member Hatch, and distinguished members of the Senate Finance
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
today. My name is Joette Katz, and I am the Commissioner of the
Connecticut Department of Children and Families, otherwise
known as DCF.
I would like to share with the committee some of the
efforts that the State of Connecticut has undertaken to address
the issue of domestic minor sex trafficking, DMST, and its
impact on our children.
First, it is important to provide an important backdrop.
Although much attention has been paid to these human rights
violations in other countries, it is perhaps less widely known
that child trafficking is occurring in the United States at an
alarming rate.
The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 200,000
American children are potentially trafficked each year into the
sex trade. The U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons
report of 2010 found that the majority of domestic victims
enslaved in the sex industry are runaway and homeless youth.
Nationally, 450,000 children run away from home each year,
and 1 out of every 3 teens on the street will be lured toward
prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. This means at
least 150,000 children are lured into prostitution each year.
The average age of children victimized by pornography and
prostitution in the United States is 12 years old.
Data show that children who are involved with child welfare
services, specifically in the foster care system, are at a much
higher risk of being trafficked into the sex trade. The
Department of Children and Families is one of the Nation's few
agencies to offer child protection, behavioral health, juvenile
justice, and prevention services under the umbrella of a single
department.
Accordingly, whether children are abused, neglected,
involved in the juvenile justice system, or experience
emotional, mental health, or substance abuse issues, the
department can respond to these children in a way that draws
upon community and State resources to help.
Over the past few years, we have seen a dramatic increase
in the trafficking of minors in Connecticut. Human trafficking
is the third most profitable criminal industry in the world,
generating an estimated $32 billion per year. The reaction of
moral outrage that is prompted in the face of such child
victimization has fueled considerable work of the department to
galvanize a system-wide collaborative effort necessary to
identify and combat this.
Since 2008, when collaborative efforts in Connecticut
significantly increased, both internally at the department and
externally with the community, there have been approximately
130 children who have been identified and confirmed as victims
of DMST.
Of those victims identified, 98 percent have been involved
with child welfare services in some manner, and many of these
children have been victimized while legally in the care and
custody of the department. To address the problem, over the
past 2 years the department has been collaborating with local,
State, and Federal law enforcement to better coordinate our
response, particularly as it relates to the children in our
child welfare system.
We have found that the most significant barriers have been
the identification of minor victims, development of appropriate
responses, and enforcement of laws leading to the arrest and
prosecution of persons responsible for these crimes.
Identification of minor victims could not be accomplished
without a State-wide training initiative that incorporated the
definition of the Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act
and the evolving State legislation in Connecticut that has been
modeled by other jurisdictions throughout the country. Most
importantly, identification and response requires raising the
awareness of the children and youths themselves who are being
victimized by trafficking. The ultimate goal of the trainings
is to change the lens, through which we view these most
vulnerable youth, from prostitute to victim, or survivor, as
the girls would describe themselves.
The State-wide training initiative in Connecticut has
rolled out in various stages over the past few years. To date,
our training academy has provided 2 full days of training to
hundreds of department employees on the issues of DMST, with 30
trainers from the department who are available to conduct an
abbreviated version.
Training sessions have occurred across the State for parole
and probation officers, private providers, police, emergency
medical services, hospitals and emergency departments, schools
and various other community entities, among others.
In addition, the department offers a 2-hour certified
training on DMST to police officers from around the State
through Connecticut's Police Officer Standards and Training
Council. To date, hundreds of officers have been trained.
The department's CARELINE, which is our 24-hour intake and
information center, was at the forefront of this initiative,
ensuring that any potential case involving a minor be reviewed
despite the lack of a legal mandate. The department protocol
has evolved over the years, and now our CARELINE accepts all
cases of DMST regardless of whether the alleged perpetrator is
the entrusted caregiver.
The department also continues to advocate for more robust
legislation to combat DMST. In recent years, the Connecticut
General Assembly has passed several acts regarding DMST,
including legislation that ensures law enforcement refer minor
victims to the department rather than arresting any exploited
youth for prostitution.
In response to this act, the DCF CARELINE implemented a
designated calling number for law enforcement to improve the
department's response to police officers, as well as any
potential victims in need of services.
This past week, our State legislature approved a bill that
provides a comprehensive response to address the issue of
sexual exploitation and human trafficking by enhancing criminal
penalties for the purchase and trafficking of minors,
protecting child victims, and adopting a criminal justice
framework for investigation and prosecution.
To further assist with the development of a comprehensive
and systemic response, an inter-agency team was established and
is known as the Human Anti-Trafficking Response Team, HART. The
HART team, led by the department, is a multi-disciplinary
collaboration including staff from the department, private
providers, and the Office of the Victim Advocate.
All cases that are called into the CARELINE are reviewed
and monitored by a member of the HART team to ensure an
appropriate response that includes the provision of services to
victims whose cases have not been substantiated.
To guarantee that all cases are prosecuted to the fullest
extent permitted by Federal and State law, the department also
collaborates with the FBI and Homeland Security on a regular
basis.
Through HART, the department's response protocol, which was
designed by a department psychiatrist, includes new practice
guidelines that provide a detailed framework to respond to
potential victims. Additionally, the department's medical team,
in collaboration with the private provider network, developed a
nursing assessment tool to help identify and treat youth.
Although the department has not received additional funds,
providers across the State who work with minor girls have been
trained on the issue of DMST, ensuring competencies at every
service level. A ``My Life, My Choice'' curriculum has been
offered at various congregate care programs throughout the
State and is now being implemented in community-based programs
as well. These strategies not only help to prevent youth from
being trafficked, but also aid the youth in their self-
identification.
In conclusion, while much of our focus in Connecticut has
been on the girls, we are equally concerned about the issues of
boys and DMST. This issue currently is under review by the
department in collaboration with our private provider network,
with a primary focus on identification and response.
In addition, the department is finalizing the design of a
curriculum for adolescent boys in an effort to deter boys and
young men from encouraging and/or engaging in the acts of DMST.
We are proud that we have made considerable progress in
increasing awareness of this horrific issue, but we fully
understand that we still have a lot of work to do in
Connecticut to protect our vulnerable children.
To help illustrate the magnitude of this problem, attached
to my testimony is a brief synopsis of two of our cases. Both
of these children were involved with the child welfare system.
Once again, I would like to thank you for this opportunity
to speak today, and obviously, at the appropriate time, I would
be happy to answer any questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Judge Katz appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Well, thank you all very much. As I listen to
you, I am struck with several points. One is, there seems to be
a significant effort, primarily in the States, whether it is
Connecticut, Los Angeles, Maryland, or DC, and people in the
appropriate agencies and State jurisdictions have worked hard
to try to resolve this.
I am also struck with a seeming agreement among all of you,
which is that the child welfare system should be responsible
for all sexually exploited children, irrespective of their
parents, guardians, or foster homes, or even those on the
streets. There must be much more mandatory reporting, and there
must be more training, et cetera.
The question I have, though, is, what is the Federal role
here? What can we in Congress do to help States? You certainly
seem to have a good grasp of the problem, but what can we do to
help; what can the Federal Government do to help here? Does
anybody want to answer first? Ms. Graves?
Ms. Graves. From my point of view at FAIR Girls, I think
that housing is key because, if you do not address the issue of
housing--in Baltimore city there are only six beds dedicated to
homeless youth. In DC, there are only eight beds dedicated to
homeless youth. So, without actually working on that issue
first, what are we going to do? The pimps are going to get the
girls before we get the girls. We can prevent trafficking by
having a stable place for youth to live in.
I know that I did not have a stable place, and, without a
stable place to live, I could not do anything. A pimp was
easily able to grab me. As the numbers show, a youth that is on
the street is going to interact with a pimp, 1 out of 3, within
72 hours. So, if we could address the issue of homelessness
first, and at the Federal level with funding for housing, I
think that would be key.
The Chairman. All right.
Ms. Guymon, what do you think?
Ms. Guymon. Well, I think one of the other issues, and it
was talked about with everybody, is training. I think there
need to be resources for training. Again, unless people are
aware that these young women are not on the street by choice,
then nothing really changes for them, and nothing changes for
all of us.
The Chairman. Who should be trained?
Ms. Guymon. I think there are a lot of programs out there.
Like they said in Connecticut, they have built curriculums. I
think there are various curriculums out there throughout the
United States. I think there needs to be mandated trainers who
come out and go through the training.
I know that OJJDP has sponsored a couple of grants where
they have put together training curriculums that have direct
correlation to CSEC, the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children, and I think States should be mandated to put that
training forward.
The Chairman. Teachers? Whom do you train?
Ms. Guymon. Anybody who is involved with young girls and
young boys. I would say teachers, community. I know within our
department and within our county, we have trained over 2,500
people in the past year, from all the different department
agencies: mental health, health services, the district
attorney, law enforcement, and just basic people in the
community who have organizations that work with community
action groups, to just really look at, if you see something,
report it. So I think just anyone who has access to children
and who works with children to provide services.
The Chairman. Are there good trainers?
Ms. Guymon. I think there are some very good trainers, yes.
The Chairman. All right.
Ms. Goldfarb?
Ms. Goldfarb. What I would reiterate is the need to really
recognize this as child abuse, and along with that comes the
mandated reporting to child welfare. While that is shifting
within some States, if there was leadership at the Federal
level that really either encouraged that or made that a policy
priority, by doing that, it would really begin to create a
safety net for this population.
When every professional in the community has an obligation
to make that report, and then child welfare receives that
report, that is really the first step in connecting all of the
agencies that are going to be helpful in supporting an
exploited child, because in most States, child welfare is
immediately going to connect with law enforcement. It is really
going to create a team of people who are looking after that
child's needs. I think in order to really advance that, it
requires leadership from the highest level.
The Chairman. It is similar to the Violence Against Women
Act, and that was a Federal policy years ago which helped focus
attention on spousal abuse, and the abuse that women sometimes
face. Something similar, you are suggesting.
Judge Katz?
Judge Katz. Thank you. Yes. Actually, I think this is very
similar to what was done with regard to domestic violence, as
well as sexual assault. I am viewing this through a financial
lens, quite frankly, because I think that there needs to be
more financial consequences, both for pimps and johns. In
Connecticut, we just passed some in rem proceedings,
forfeiture.
I mean, it really is in some ways hitting people where it
hurts. A lot of trafficking goes on at large venues: the Super
Bowl, gambling casinos. I think you need to shine a light on
what goes on there and, again, have attendant financial
consequences in addition to the in rem proceedings.
Then finally, along the same vein, I think there needs to
be some attention to publishers. What I mean by that is, we
have legislation in Connecticut that goes after people who
place advertisements, escort services, in which they are
trafficking young girls. But frankly, the publishers who
publish these newspaper ads do so with complete impunity, and I
question that, quite frankly.
The Chairman. Thank you all. I apologize, but I am going to
have to break in a little bit to conduct a little business. We
have a quorum present, so we can consider the nomination of
Michael Froman to be U.S. Trade Representative. I would
encourage Senators to submit their statements for the record so
we can take action on Mr. Froman.
If there is no further debate, I would entertain a motion
that we report the nomination.
Senator Hatch. I so move.
The Chairman. Without objection, the nomination is
reported. I do not see a roll call being requested, so we will
proceed. No, we do not need one. All right.
The nomination is ordered reported. Thanks to all Senators
for their attendance. I deeply appreciate it. All right.
Senator Hatch?
Senator Hatch. Ms. Graves, I want to thank you so much for
being at the hearing today and for your courage and resiliency
and your efforts to try to help other young women who have
suffered as you have.
As a survivor advocate, I would like your view on one of
the key recommendations from the National Foster Care Youth and
Alumni Policy Council, which calls for a ``youth-friendly
resource for reporting abuse.'' Can you offer any suggestions
on what would need to be in place in order to provide for that
type of a resource?
On a related topic, some have suggested that a domestic sex
trafficking reporting hot-line be established. Others do not
believe that that hot-line will be an effective deterrent or
intervention tool. So, I would like your views on the
establishment of a hot-line as well.
Ms. Graves. I do agree, and I think that there has to be a
youth-friendly reporting place. My suggestion is that there
needs to be a text message or online resource that is youth-
friendly and safe, where they can report abuse, whether that is
abuse by a pimp or abuse inside the foster home or group home.
In certain circumstances, it might not be safe for a youth
to make a phone call. This would be because of a violent pimp
or possibly a foster parent or adult who may retaliate against
them. Most youth have cell phones. At FAIR Girls, we are
testing a mobile application on relationship safety called the
Charm Alarm. If we create a similar system of reporting for
this, I think that it could be beneficial. I feel that it would
be really beneficial.
So, just as important, there needs to be a place for youth
to go after they make a report. This is why, at FAIR Girls, we
are advocating for opening a safehouse for girls identified as
victims in DC.
You asked me as well about the hot-line. I feel that a hot-
line would not be an effective tool. Currently, we have the
National Human Trafficking Hot-line. The issue is not having an
appropriate place for youth to call, but the resources to fund
organizations that provide direct services to victims.
I believe that, if we can make sure that all victims who
encounter law enforcement and direct service providers are
given information for the National Human Trafficking Hot-line,
that would actually make it more condensed, where all the
victims are going into one place and we know exactly where
these victims are. Creating another hot-line would be
duplicating an already working system, in my opinion.
Senator Hatch. All right. Thank you.
Commissioner Katz and Ms. Guymon, I want to thank you for
appearing. This is an extremely important hearing as far as I
am concerned. I want to thank you for the work that you do, all
four of you. It is terrific, what you are trying to do,
especially in States that have undertaken policies to address
issues associated with trafficked minors.
Can you produce further details on what happens to the
trafficker when the trafficking case is screened into the child
welfare system? For instance, is he considered a legal guardian
for purposes of establishing abuse? Are there automatic
procedures to engage law enforcement? Can you just give us some
background on that, any of you?
Ms. Guymon. In Los Angeles, I think one of the issues that
we struggle with is, no, we do not consider him, the
trafficker, a guardian. In most cases, we have a difficult time
figuring out who the trafficker is, because young women do not
disclose who it is because they are afraid.
So, therefore, we get a hot-line call, and there is no
perpetrator, if you would, on that. There is legislation
happening in California which will allow child welfare to
screen a case and be able to bring a young person into the
child welfare system.
Again, I think child welfare is built on the perpetrator
being a family member or someone who is related. They have
started taking hot-line calls as early as January of this year
for mandated reporting of sex trafficking, and so far, since
January, they have introduced 75 young women into the foster
care system just in Los Angeles.
But I think, again, in identifying the trafficker, it is
very difficult. I will say, because of a lot of the prevention
and intervention work that we are doing within Los Angeles
County, within the last 18 months we have had 24 young women
testify against their trafficker, which has been quite a few
more than it was a few years back. I think that really has to
do with a lot of the support and services that we have been
able to put in place in Los Angeles.
Senator Hatch. Great.
Commissioner Katz?
Judge Katz. Thank you. We are fortunate in Connecticut
because we do not worry, frankly, as to whether or not the
trafficker is an entrusted guardian, because more often than
not the trafficker is not an entrusted guardian. I mean,
certainly if the child is being trafficked by his or her
parent, then, from a procedural standpoint, the case is really
easy.
We substantiate and obviously remove the child from the
parent and put services in place, et cetera, but we do not
consider ourselves limited by that, fortunately. We respond to
those girls within 2 hours. Our CARELINE is trained on how to
respond, because, very much like domestic violence, it really
is a difficult situation, and we need to be very thoughtful and
mindful of how we respond to these girls.
We want to embrace them and not prosecute them. We contact
law enforcement immediately. We engage law enforcement, often
on the Federal level, but just as often on the State level. We
surrender the information that we have to law enforcement
agencies. We partner with them. Then we immediately engage our
leaders--one of whom is with me today, Tammy Sneed; another is
Bill Rivera--and our HART team to try to attend to these girls,
immediately wrap services around them.
If in fact they need hospital care, we also partner with
our local medical facilities, again through the protocol
designed by our nurses, so that these girls do not sit in a
waiting room on a triage system for hours on end. They are
brought into a back room where they are gently treated by
doctors and nurses who have been equally trained in this area.
I cannot emphasize training enough. I know you have heard a
great deal about it today. I want to echo that because, just
like with domestic violence and sexual assault victims, it is
key in how you respond to these young ladies--generally young
ladies--in the first instance, because you get one shot.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Hatch. I want to thank all of you, too, for being
here.
The Chairman. Senator Brown?
Senator Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Graves, you said in your testimony, ``The teachers and
social workers who met me did not see the warning signs.'' What
do we do to equip adults, especially in the case of social
workers and others, but teachers and adults that someone like
you would have run into? How do we equip them better to listen
to you, to pay attention to what you say, to actually believe
your story when you try to talk to them in those few moments
that you might get to interact with somebody outside in that
way?
Ms. Graves. For me, I think that the key thing you just
said was believing in them and believing what they say. If you
do not believe what a youth says, even if it may seem a little
bit outlandish, some of what they are saying may be true.
I do not think a girl or a young woman is going to say, ``I
was raped'' if she probably was not raped. I mean, rape is one
crime that no woman wants to even discuss most times, and most
rapes go unreported. So as a young woman, when I was
encountering social workers and teachers and saying I was
raped, I was raped, I was raped, no one believed me.
My teachers, social workers, the doctors, would not even do
medical tests. I think that is reprehensible now, that no one
would even do that. I think the best way to actually fix that
and equip them is, we have a prevention education program that
we teach in Baltimore city schools, as well as in DC public
high schools.
You would be surprised that most teachers do not even know
that human trafficking happens in their own city. I mean, human
trafficking happens right outside our Nation's capital. Human
trafficking happened right downtown in Baltimore on Baltimore
Street and Gay Street, which the students--you would be
surprised that the students actually know more about
trafficking than the teachers do. They know that it is
happening in their communities.
If you could have a professional development day for all
social workers and all teachers and make it a mandatory
requirement federally as well as in colleges--I know that in my
small college in Tennessee, for this past semester they tried
something new, where they let me teach the class on trafficking
for 1 day, going over what is trafficking, how it affects
social workers.
So, if all social workers in college were mandatorily
required to go through training on human trafficking, anyone
who interacts with children--whether they are probation
officers, and we train DJS employees all the time--anyone who
is interacting with the youth should be trained on human
trafficking and trained on what the warning signs are, which
are multiple STDs, running away from home, showing up with
expensive items that they cannot afford. I mean, how can a 14-
year-old afford an iPhone 5 and brand-new Louis Vuitton shoes
that I cannot afford as someone who works full-time? Things
like that.
Senator Brown. Thank you.
What you said about adults not recognizing this problem in
this country is, I think, so important to underscore. That is
one reason I think the chairman calling this hearing is so
important. I think most of us in this country think of sex
trafficking and trafficking for labor, too, as something in the
developing world, something only in the poorest countries. That
is what makes this hearing important.
Toledo, by some studies, is--and I know that is one reason
Senator Portman has taken this issue on. It is important to him
and to our State. It is because of its location, in part, and
being at the intersection of two major east/west and north/
south interstates, that it is part of this.
I appreciate what you said about housing in response to the
chairman's question, specifically how important that is. My
understanding is that in Ohio, according to a University of
Toledo study, a runaway child will most likely be approached by
a trafficker, a recruiter, after having left home, within 2
weeks, sometimes obviously as early as 48 hours. What do we do
to protect these children in those situations, when they have
run away, from being lured into trafficking? Give us a couple
of thoughts on that, Ms. Graves.
Ms. Graves. Treat them as a victim instead of as a
criminal, because most youth, they are going to get arrested
within a couple of weeks of being out on the streets for doing
something. It may not be prostitution. It may be stealing
clothes from a store. I mean, I know there was one time I got
in trouble at a grocery store in Boston, in Beacon Hill, for
stealing groceries.
So, when you are stealing groceries and you are 16 years
old, you would think that they would actually call the police
and say, well, this youth must be homeless, let us do something
about it. Where are the youth supposed to go when they are
homeless and on the streets?
As you said, in Toledo they basically meet a pimp within 2
weeks. So, if they are sleeping on a park bench or staying at--
doing what we call in DC, couch surfing--that is what the kids
call it: couch surfing. If they are couch surfing from place to
place to place, why are any of these people not noticing it?
Senator Brown. So what happened when you were caught taking
those groceries? What specifically happened from the grocery
store management and the police?
Ms. Graves. They barred me from going into the store again
and said that I was a criminal and that I was a thief, and they
threatened to arrest me. The police asked me where I lived, and
I made up a fake address because I did not want to say that I
was homeless. What youth wants to say, I have no place to go,
that I have no family to count on? I mean, when I could not pay
my rent to my father, he said, ``You cannot live here.''
Why did the child welfare system not get involved then? Why
did the child welfare system not say, we need to make sure that
this man who has 21 children and is not paying child support
for any of them, why did they not say, let us look into him?
They knew he was alcoholic. They had been to the house prior to
me living there, and they knew that I was going there. I had
been to the hospital.
I used to go sleep in hospitals. So, when you are trying to
sneak into hospitals and do not have a place to stay, and the
hospital is letting you stay there for a day, then saying, oh,
well, is something wrong with you, and you are saying, yes, my
ankle hurts--I went to the hospital for multiple injuries, and
no one got involved until I was beaten to the point of death.
No medical personnel or anyone else.
Senator Brown. Thank you. Thanks, Ms. Graves.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Portman?
Senator Portman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really
appreciate you having this hearing today, increasing awareness
of the issue. Senator Brown is right, in Ohio we do have a
problem. We do everywhere. In 2010, Toledo was listed as the
fourth-ranking city in America in terms of human trafficking.
That is one reason Senator Brown and I are engaged.
But it happens in all of our cities in Ohio and in many of
our rural areas, so I really appreciate the fact that all of
you are engaged on this issue and every day in the trenches,
and specifically raising awareness today.
Ms. Graves, your testimony was really powerful, as it
always is.
Ms. Graves. Thank you.
Senator Portman. Thank you for being willing to get out
there and tell what have to be painful stories.
In response to Senator Brown, I thought that was good to
hear more about, how do you recognize the signs, specifically
for teachers, social workers, and law enforcement.
You also talked during your testimony about keeping girls
safe and helping girls to understand; I think you said
educating girls as to the dangers. What do you find are the
most successful tools to educate youth who might be vulnerable?
Ms. Graves. Currently we teach a 4-module curriculum in DC
and Maryland schools, and in detention centers and in group
homes. By teaching this curriculum, which goes over, what is
trafficking--and we use modern music, things that they listen
to every day, to say, well, how does the music industry impact
trafficking? What does trafficking look like in your community?
Who is trafficked? A lot of times they will say ``taken,''
things of that sort.
That is the view that I hear from adults as well, which is
shocking, when most people who have college degrees know that
it happens here but no one wants to admit it happens here. So,
when we actually go into the classrooms and I see these youths,
they will tell me ``taken'' the first day. Going through the 4-
module curriculum and then having survivors on staff like FAIR
Girls does go into the schools to tell their story and share
their experiences with these youth--and some of them are
basically saying that they are homeless now--we create a
resource guide for every city that our curriculum is used in.
The resource guide has housing resources, food, clothing,
transportation, medical services. Anything that the youth that
may be living on the streets may need, our resource guide
provides. But like I said, when there is no housing available--
there has been times when we have slept in hotel lobbies with
the girls--what exactly are we supposed to do to help them and
keep them safe?
Their pimp is going to tell them, well, the service
provider you are working with is not keeping you safe because
you do not have a place to sleep tonight. We have girls who
come to our office every day whom we work with who would do
what they need to do, but the shelters do not have any beds for
them. We tell them the same night, we will try to put you in a
hotel if we have the funds for it.
But, if we do not have the funding, we do not have a place
for these girls to go, and they are going right back to the
pimps who are beating them, raping them, and selling them every
day, because at least that pimp is providing them a place to
sleep and food to eat. I went back several times because of
that.
Senator Portman. So you are providing them with what the
warning signs might be, but also options.
Ms. Graves. Options. Resources.
Senator Portman. Yes. Resources.
Ms. Guymon, and for that matter other panelists, I think
one thing we have heard today loud and clear is that we should
be treating young people who are, by appearances, engaging in
prostitution as victims of exploitation. I think one step
further, where this committee actually has a role to play, is
ensuring that those victims are eligible to receive services as
victims of child abuse in the child welfare system. Judge Katz
said earlier also, we should be looking at these girls as
survivors and not just as victims.
This committee does have jurisdiction here. Senator Hatch
talked about it at the outset. We have jurisdiction over child
welfare, State plans, for instance, and that is why this
committee is an appropriate venue for this.
Research suggests, as we have heard today, that trafficked
youth in the United States have typically been in and out of
the child welfare system. In New York, 85 percent have prior
child welfare involvement; in Florida, the estimate there for
their task force is that 70 percent of the kids are foster
youth. You talked about that, Ms. Graves. So there is
definitely a connection here.
In an effort to break down some of these obstacles to care,
last week Senator Wyden, who is here today, and I introduced a
bipartisan bill, with support from a lot of members of this
committee--including Senator Blumenthal who was here earlier
and co-chairs the Human Trafficking Caucus--that basically
requires that children who have been involved in sex
trafficking be considered victims of abuse and neglect under
CAPTA, which is the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.
Another part of the bill requires that, after being
informed that a child is missing from child welfare, law
enforcement has to notify the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.
So my question to you is, understanding that notification
of a child missing varies a lot across this country, are there
specific policies or practices that contribute to the lack of
this standardized reporting, and what can be done? You talked
about collaborative efforts, and Judge Katz talked about a
multi-jurisdiction effort. Does this legislation seem to make
sense, and what can be done at a national level?
Ms. Guymon. Yes, I think it obviously does make sense. I
think the more we build those policies and do legislation for,
again, mandated reporting and really having those policies and
procedures in place, I think it helps direct States in what
they need to do, especially with the child welfare system. I
know I come from juvenile justice. I am not in the child
welfare system in Los Angeles, but I do know that they are very
much engaged in this issue.
They are working with the State to pass, like I said, new
legislation in order to make their hot-line more productive and
to be able to take these kids into the system and give them the
services that they need that they have not really looked at in
the past. I think, again, we just did not know better. Now that
we do, we are trying to catch up and make sure that these kids
are protected.
Senator Portman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My time has
experienced.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator, very much.
Senator Portman. My time has expired, but I thank all of
you for your work.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Senator Cardin?
Senator Cardin. Well, once again, Mr. Chairman, thank you
for holding this hearing. I thank all of our witnesses, and
particularly I want to thank Ms. Graves.
We hear the numbers and statistics. We are shocked by the
statistics, but, until you see a face and you recognize that
each one of those numbers is a person whose life has been
changed forever, it is hard to really visualize the extent of
the problem. So I said in introducing you that you are a
courageous person. You are making a huge difference by telling
your story, and I just really want to thank you for that.
As you said, people do not want to acknowledge that they
are homeless. Children do not want to acknowledge that they are
homeless. They do not want to acknowledge that they do not have
a family. They certainly do not want to acknowledge the type of
background that you went through, and yet you are doing that. I
just wanted you to know how important it is and how proud we
are that you are here today.
I have been involved on international trafficking through
the U.S. Helsinki Commission. The United States has taken a
major leadership role to set up resources internationally to
deal with trafficking. Our credibility is affected because we
have not done enough locally, so we need to take care of our
own business here at home. I think your point about resources
for housing is a very valid point.
The first order of business is to have a safe home. Many of
these children are in the child welfare system, but the child
welfare system has failed, so we need to be able to have a
fail-safe, a safe home, and the resources devoted to deal with
that.
I want to ask you, though, the difficult question about
safety. You were threatened, your family was threatened. You
are talking today with girls who are coming out, and you have a
chance to meet with them. What is the confidence level of a
person who has been trafficked for sex about coming forward to
law enforcement as to the fear that they will endanger their
personal safety, and the government, the community, will not
provide the support necessary to protect them?
Ms. Graves. The first thing that comes to my mind is
imminent death. In the past, that is what I would have thought
of about 7 or 8 years ago. But now that I look at how the
child--I mean, when I got out, I actually had caring law
enforcement, a special agent, whom I still speak to to this
day.
Almost 7 years later, I still speak to her, a Boston police
officer, Sergeant Kelly O'Connell, whom I speak to to this day,
every other week. We still check in with each other and make
sure that I am doing fine. But if I was not on my death bed, I
would not have gone to the hospital.
I know girls now, they do not trust law enforcement because
there are no safe houses. What are they going to do? They are
going to put the girls in DC in Covenant House in DC, and all
the pimps know where the group homes are. They know where the
detention centers are. There needs to be a specialized, private
place where there is security, because, without security, who
is going to protect these girls?
These girls are going to have to go to school, they are
going to have to go and get a job eventually. These traffickers
know where all these places are. I mean, luckily our office is
a confidential location, but I am sure they know where the
probation offices are.
If a girl is on probation, they know her probation officer.
They can meet a girl outside her probation officer's office.
Without law enforcement having the training that they need on
trafficking--if a law enforcement officer is not trained on
what trafficking is, they are going to say that a girl is a
prostitute and she is a throw-away.
As a case manager--and people do not know that I am a
survivor at all times--I have heard officers throw around the
word ``throw-away.'' I have heard teachers say that a girl is a
``throw-away,'' that they are not worth the time. So, if a
person is not even worth your time to listen to, how do you
think that they are going to feel about coming forward and
giving you information? I testified against my traffickers. I
put six traffickers away, two of them for 25 years, because I
had the proper support system of law enforcement and case
managers. But most girls do not have that like I did.
Senator Cardin. You experienced several pimps. What were
their age ranges?
Ms. Graves. From 21 to 35. I was 16 at the time I met the
first one, who was 23. But on average, they are a little bit
older, usually in their early '30s.
Senator Cardin. How difficult has it been to testify
against pimps?
Ms. Graves. It was the scariest experience that I have ever
experienced. It was more scary than this experience today.
[Laughter.]
So for me, I look around at you guys, and I am like, well,
they are not threatening my safety or threatening to harm me,
so I can do this. For everything that scares me, I say: I
testified in front of my traffickers; I put them away. Without
me, that case would never have gone to trial. None of the girls
would have come forward. But when I came forward, other girls
decided to stand up against my traffickers. We need people who
are going to support the girls and care for them like we do at
FAIR Girls.
Senator Cardin. Well, you have done a great job here. I am
glad that you are here, and thank you very much for your
commitment to change our system.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Casey?
Senator Casey. Ms. Graves and the other panelists, we are
grateful for your testimony here. I was thinking, as I join in
the commendation that other members of the committee have sent
your way for your courage in being here today, of the greater
measure of courage you have shown to come back from where you
were.
One of the things we have in the Senate and in the House is
the privilege of meeting soldiers after they have come off the
battlefield. I think many of us would certainly put each of you
in that league, as someone who has suffered so much, but is
still able to look forward.
One of the most inspirational parts of your testimony is
that you have figured out a way to take what happened to you
yesterday and inspire others for tomorrow. We are in your debt
for that.
You talked about three areas of change, number one being
the critical funding to open specialized homes. Then you talked
about this curriculum. I am not sure if you read this, Ms.
Graves, but I wanted to recite it as well, where you talk about
the education of young people. You say, ``I have educated
thousands of teen girls and boys in foster homes, schools, and
detention facilities. This curriculum has educated over 4,000
teens nationwide.'' It goes on from there.
What would you hope would come from a hearing like this, or
efforts that are undertaken here in the Senate, when it comes
to just that part of it, educating young people?
Ms. Graves. Well, for me it would be to see our curriculum
in every single school and every single system around the
country, because our curriculum is broad, it is expansive, and
it can be used in every other city. I know that we use our
curriculum in Connecticut as well with an organization called
LOVE146. They are teaching it in Connecticut schools and using
the systems already in place in Connecticut. If every single
city had something to identify victims in the schools, then
that would be a key starting place.
Girls and boys are more likely to say, this is something
that is happening to me, once they know that they are a victim.
If you think that I am just a dirty, nasty person and there are
other names--there is an activity we do called Power of Words.
We ask the students and the teachers to come up with words to
describe a prostitute and a sexually exploited teen. They come
up with ``nasty,'' ``dirty,'' ``trashy,'' ``STD,'' other words
to describe a prostitute. We sometimes put in the word ``child
prostitute,'' because people use that term often.
Then we put ``sexually exploited teen'' on the other side.
You know what they say? ``Sad,'' ``lonely,'' ``scared,''
``vulnerable,'' ``manipulated,'' ``unloved.'' For that one
activity, that changes the mind-set of a group of teenaged boys
sometimes who use these terms and listen to music that
denigrates women.
For them to say it is actually wrong, what happens to these
girls, and to change their outlook, to me that is key. If I can
save one victim, I am happy, because that would be one less
person going through what I went through. If I could rescue
1,000 girls or a million girls, if our curriculum was in every
single school district or a curriculum similar to it, it would
actually save more children, because they will know that they
are actually victims.
Senator Casey. Well, I have no doubt your work has saved a
lot of young people already.
For Ms. Guymon, Ms. Goldfarb, and Judge Katz, I guess as
much as I was focused on prevention in that first question, the
here and the now of law enforcement, when Ms. Graves talked
about Sergeant Kelly O'Connell, what can we do to make sure
that there are more Sergeant O'Connells?
In other words, when you deal with law enforcement on these
issues, do they tell you that this is a capacity or resource
question or is it simply a failure to coordinate or collaborate
between and among one part of the State and law enforcement, or
do you hear that they need more resources? What do you hear
from law enforcement?
Judge Katz. All of the above, frankly. I mean, for many
departments, they need to be educated, and that is what we do.
We go out and we meet with police departments throughout the
State to educate them. Some of them do not even know about the
legislation that was passed 2 years ago that said these young
ladies are not to be arrested for prostitution, so it really is
about education and training, and we do that.
I think the resource part comes in in terms of the
prosecution. It is not dissimilar to them, I think, than
arresting somebody for a small amount of drugs versus the
dealer. Unless they see it as a real pattern of behavior in
their locations, they feel that they are under-resourced to be
able to really go after these cases. So, all of the above.
Senator Casey. Thanks very much.
Ms. Goldfarb. If I could, I would love to add to that,
because I have the privilege of working with Sergeant Kelly
O'Connell in Boston. I guess I would want to back up a little
bit and say that Asia had the good fortune to meet Kelly, but
at the moment that we were very first, as a community,
beginning to even recognize that girls like Asia were out
there. So the good fortune was that you met, but we were really
just getting off the ground.
So I work in the same building with the detectives who
manage our human trafficking cases, also together with a
program called My Life, My Choice, which provides prevention
education and mentoring for exploited youth. So our Children's
Advocacy Center and our partners are located together.
What I observed in doing this work with Kelly, who is
extraordinary, is that, when the police first started working
with us and with our other partners, we were not on the same
page. The police, Kelly among them--and she would admit this--
thought that they would go out and rescue girls, that they
would identify a girl and they would be able to scoop her up
and take care of her needs.
The frustration of seeing that not happen, of seeing girls
run away, of seeing girls reject the overtures that law
enforcement and others were making, was really heartbreaking. I
think what law enforcement in our community has learned is that
part of the response from law enforcement, as well as others,
begins with a relationship. So it is clear in listening to Asia
that that relationship was founded when they met and is
sustained now.
For law enforcement to look at their work in that way is
distinctly different than I think the way they look at other
crimes that they investigate. Setting that kind of model in
place is something that all the disciplines--child welfare, law
enforcement, mental health folks, and others--have to learn
together because, with these kids, it is rooted in the
relationship and having adults that these kids can count on in
the long term, and realizing that we are not going to be able
to rescue exploited youth but that we have to join them in
their recovery and move forward in that way and hope that,
along that recovery, there will be an opportunity to prosecute
their traffickers.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Goldfarb, very much.
Senator Casey. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Casey.
Senator Wyden?
Senator Wyden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The four of you have been a superb panel. What is striking
about it is, normally in this room we are talking about numbers
and we are talking about tax law and charts and graphs. What
you all have driven home and why we are so appreciative, Mr.
Chairman, of your holding this hearing, is that it always comes
back to people. It always comes back to individuals and young
women.
Ms. Graves, you have delivered the wake-up call. You have
conveyed the urgency of reform this morning. I am told by the
staff that you want to go to law school. I have to say, the bad
guys had better look out if you are going to be a lawyer. We
are very appreciative of the good work that you do.
Now, here is what it comes down to for me. I think what
really sparks Senator Portman and a number of colleagues who
are supporting this bill is, in much of the country today, if a
girl is found in the custody of a so-called pimp or even a
john, she is not considered to be a victim of abuse.
That is just wrong. It defies common sense, and that is
right at the heart of our bill, to amend Federal law to make
sure that, in every corner of the country, child victims of sex
trafficking are considered as victims of abuse and neglect.
Now, one of the other provisions speaks to a concern you
all have described today, and a number of Senators have asked
about it, which is, we have to get additional resources for
treatment and for services. It was our view--when Senator
Portman and I were trying to put this bill together and talking
to Senators--that because we do not really have good numbers
today about how many young women are being trafficked, that
makes it harder to make the case to legislators and
policymakers for getting the money for services and treatment.
What is your take on that? When we get the numbers--and the
idea is to finally have the annual State report, because some
States do it, other States do not. When we get the numbers on
the children identified as suspected victims of trafficking,
will that help us make the case for additional money for
services?
Perhaps for our middle two witnesses, Ms. Guymon and Ms.
Goldfarb, what is your take on that? Will that help us get the
dollars that we need for these treatment services that you all
speak so eloquently about?
Ms. Guymon. I think that, if one young woman is sexually
exploited, that is enough to make a case. I know in Los Angeles
County we are always asked the question about the numbers. On
average, we have about 200 young women a year who are arrested
and brought into juvenile justice. As I said, child welfare has
recorded 70 thus far this year.
In our juvenile hall outreach programs we had, over the
past year, 37 young women disclose that they were being
sexually exploited who were never arrested for sexual
exploitation and whom we had not identified. We also had, in
2010, from our 18- to 24-year-old population, in 1 year, 2,341
young women arrested for a prostitution-related offense.
So, when people ask about the numbers, I say anywhere
between 37 and 2,351. Again, that one young woman who goes
through this experience is, I think, enough to build a case
that they are in need of services and support throughout all of
our systems.
Senator Wyden. Ms. Goldfarb, do you want to add to that?
Ms. Goldfarb. So it is a little bit of a chicken and an egg
because, in order to know what the numbers are, you have to
increase awareness, which you hope will result in
identification. But once you have identified an exploited
youth, we need to be ready to provide the services that that
child requires.
So waiting for the numbers will leave us with a dilemma, so
I think there has to be capacity building at the same time that
we are very deliberately making sure that professionals across
disciplines are able to recognize these kids and report them.
I think that there are opportunities to build capacity
within existing organizations. It is not necessarily creating
lots of new systems, but I worry, as Michelle does, that if we
wait until we have the numbers, kids will continue to be
harmed. If we recognize their abuse and we are not able to
provide the support they need, what is the message there? Then
we have let them down yet again.
Senator Wyden. It is a very powerful point. Clearly, when
one child, just one young girl, falls between the cracks, that
is one too many. I think what we are looking for are the tools
to try to figure out how to make the case.
If I can just squeeze in one additional question, Mr.
Chairman.
Ms. Katz, you all in Connecticut seem to have really
figured out how to put together a comprehensive strategy, so,
when local jurisdictions around the country say, gee, we really
do not know how to fix this, or we cannot get started, you all
seem to have figured that out. How did you do it? What are the
lessons for everybody else?
Judge Katz. Well, I am a little late to the game, because I
have only been there 2\1/2\ years, and some of the work started
before me. But part of it was really shining a light on it and
talking about it at every possible venue. Anytime I testified
before the legislature, I figured out a way to work this topic
in.
Anytime I went around the State and I went to our offices,
to our providers, to our hospitals, I figured out a way to make
this part of the dialogue. Because, just like you are
experiencing today, once you hear about it, you never forget
it, and then you want to know what you can do to help.
So, frankly, that was a big part of it. I have wonderful
partners at the legislature. I have a very supportive Governor.
Frankly, I think it really is an issue of just people caring
and then trying to be resourceful about it in response. It is
not easy. We still have plenty of work to do, there is no
question about it. It is not a quick fix.
I mean, that is the other thing. I think my partners here
have talked about that. There is, I do not want to say, a
relapse as part of the recovery, but you are not going to get
these girls in and immediately fix everything for them. So part
of the training has to be for people to understand trust.
When you find a young woman who has been involved in this
system, to expect that suddenly she is going to thank you for
everything you are going to do for her and suddenly trust you
is really to ignore the reality that she has experienced. So it
is a long process, and it takes an enormous amount of patience.
If I can just conclude with one other thought. Before, I
was talking about the stick when I was talking about in rem
proceedings, which are obviously a great way of trying to
finance some of the things you want to try to do, and licensing
at Super Bowl venues, et cetera. There is also a carrot.
So we are now in the process of developing specific foster
families who understand these girls, whom we are going to train
so that, when we find these girls, we can put them not just in
shelters, not just in housing, but with families.
I am famous for saying at the department and around the
State, I want children having breakfast in the morning with the
same person who put them to bed the night before, and that is a
family. So it is really about recruiting specific families whom
we can train and work with. So that is where the incentives
come in.
Frankly, as part of your legislation, if you can figure out
a way to help States, to reimburse States for these new models,
I think you will do an amazing job at helping to solve this
problem.
Senator Wyden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator.
Senator Nelson?
Senator Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all.
I want to read you an article, a portion of an article,
involving my State. Florida is blessed to be a destination
State--with theme park family vacations, business conferences,
weddings, sporting events--and the natural beauty of our
beaches entices thousands of visitors a day.
Unfortunately, Florida also draws visitors for a far less
attractive reason: child sex trafficking. Our State is ranked
third in the Nation, just behind California and Texas, for this
dubious honor. The implication in a couple of these articles is
that a lot of this takes place among visitors, conventioneers,
et cetera. To what degree, Judge, in your experience, are
hotels complicit in this activity, and to what degree do they
know that this activity is going on and approve of it?
Judge Katz. Well, I can certainly tell you anecdotally, we
have casinos--and we have young victims who have told us that,
despite all the security that is supposedly watching, casinos
are used routinely, as are large concert halls, any kind of
sporting venue. It is almost just implicit, for lack of a
better term. It is implicit. There is an implicit understanding
and a look-the-other-way that this goes on.
Senator Nelson. So the owners of these hotels or the
managers of the hotels would obviously know that this illicit
activity is going on, very possibly with children?
Judge Katz. Yes. I would say know or should have known. In
the law, that is a term that we frequently use. It is great for
someone to say, I did not know, but then we turn to, but you
should have known. When you are looking at everything else, and
you are counting every spoon that is on the table and every
beverage that is being taken behind the bar, why are you not
paying attention to what is happening to these girls?
Senator Nelson. Do you have any recommendation of how this
ought to be exposed, other than these attempts by local TV
stations and the newspapers to bring this out?
Judge Katz. Well, I hate to keep coming back to financial
consequences, but money talks. I really think that that is a
very viable way to get somebody's attention. Imposing fines,
significant fines, will go a long way.
Senator Nelson. In your experience in Connecticut, are you
seeing improvement in the reporting of these cases so that it
will build the case all the more that this is happening right
under our noses?
Judge Katz. We are. Our CARELINE gets 96,000 calls a year.
Now, that is obviously not just for this type of reporting. But
our numbers are up, and I say that that is a good thing,
because we know it is going on. So the more the numbers go up,
the more we can attend to it and the better case that we can
make.
Senator Nelson. Back to the hotels. In your experience in
Connecticut, this is not fleabag motels. We are talking about
high-end hotels as well.
Judge Katz. Right. It is both, but definitely high-end
hotels. I want to be clear that much of what we are learning is
from the girls themselves. We have every reason to completely
trust their accounting.
Senator Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
I was wondering how best to reach young girls. Social
networking is so prevalent these days, texting, Twitter. I
guess they are called tweeters, tweeting. I do not use it,
obviously. Facebook. But let me ask Ms. Graves and others the
degree to which maybe--I do not know, I am just thinking out
loud here--some kind of a website or something, someplace for
girls to go to, might be helpful. They all have iPhones. They
maybe do not trust a teacher, maybe do not trust a cop or
something, but want to talk to somebody. I would ask the rest
of you too about the use of social networking.
Ms. Graves. I would say that using social networking would
be excellent, because you can see the warning signs. If you
have a website dedicated to learning the warning signs through
games, because I know that our Charm Alarm is--most girls do
online quizzes to see if my boyfriend likes me, or, oh, our
names are compatible, or what is my horoscope. I see this every
day. Oh, what is my Facebook status? This is something that I
hear from girls on a daily basis.
So, if we can create something and put a system in place
for warning signs, red flags, things of that sort, to make it
fun and catchy like our Charm Alarm is, I think that might be
key to getting to these girls, because it is an online resource
that girls can access through the Internet or through their
phone.
Also, it looks like a regular quiz, so it does not look
like anything dangerous. Each level, if you answer the
questions one way--if you answer them with ``yes,'' ``yes,''
``yes,'' ``yes,'' ``yes,'' like my boyfriend cares about me, my
boyfriend is compassionate and sweet, or if you say ``no'' to
all the answers, it gives you a level red. The level red means
go to seek help immediately, that you are in a dangerous
situation, and it gives you an emergency number in your area
that you can reach out to.
I think that if all jurisdictions had something like this
in place, that it could be sort of like Commissioner Katz does,
like if the Charm Alarm quiz could have Connecticut's
information in place for a youth who may be in sensitive
situations so they can reach out directly through that quiz,
but send a text message or send a tweet on Twitter to whatever
services they need.
If all these services were mobile-based, they could be
Facebook friends with the Department of Children's Services and
make a report through the Department of Children's Services
that way instead of actually having to call in because they may
not be able to use their phone.
I mean, I am sure there are people in this room right now
who are on their phones, but you cannot hear them because they
are not speaking. So I mean, something like that in place would
probably be key, I think.
The Chairman. So would the girls trust these, like Charm
Alarm and all that?
Ms. Graves. It is the Internet. The Internet is the best
thing in the world. Without the Internet, I know that for me,
even as a 25-year-old, without my phone for about 2 days, I
went through iPhone withdrawal and had to go to Starbucks when
our power went out last summer just to charge my phone so I
could see my social networking and things like that.
The Chairman. Other panelists, how best do we use social
networking? Is that useful?
Ms. Guymon. I would say Asia pretty much covered that, but
I also would like to say, too, outside of social networking,
which I think has been talked about here, is prevention efforts
within the community. I know that they have talked about a
curriculum.
I know that we have done that in Los Angeles through the My
Life, My Choice curriculum that we have. We have given the
curriculum to almost 700 young women over the last year, and,
through those classes and through those workshops, I think it
has been a great--young women are asking if they can bring
their friends. I think they talk to each other, and I think
they want to know, and I think they have a right to know.
I also want to say through that curriculum, I think one of
the most important things that we are doing in Los Angeles is
incorporating survivors in a lot of the work that we do. I
think that is just invaluable.
Within our department, we have had to change some of our
policies and rules for some of the young women and adult
survivors to come in and do mentorship and whatnot with our
young girls. But I think they are the primary facilitators of a
lot of the prevention efforts we are doing, which I think has
made a huge difference in our county and with connection with a
lot of our young people.
The Chairman. Senator Hatch?
Senator Hatch. Well, I have really enjoyed this panel.
Maybe enjoyment is not the word, but I have really learned from
this panel. I have been reading up on this, and I have to say
that your time here has been well-spent.
Now, you have made a lot of suggestions here today, and we
are going to pay attention to those, but let me ask each of you
to just sum up for us, if you had just one choice that you
could make that we could help you with, what would you choose?
Let us start with you, Asia, and go across. I have
appreciated your testimony very much, by the way. I think you
are a brave person, and it is wonderful to see you finish up in
college and hopefully go to law school. It will be a great
thing, so we are proud of you.
But if you had just one thing that we could do within, say,
this next year, that you think would be really helpful and make
a difference here, what would you choose?
Ms. Graves. For me, it would be doubling the number of
beds. Currently, from my last check, there were less than 100
beds around the country for victims, dedicated to victims.
Senator Hatch. That is unbelievable to me.
Ms. Graves. Dedicated.
Senator Hatch. I mean, that is hard to believe. So it
includes education so people realize we are not doing the job
here.
Ms. Graves. With less than 100 beds, in LA alone they found
more victims. We have identified at FAIR Girls way more victims
than 100. If we just had the 100 beds in DC, that would not
even cover all the girls that we reach per year.
So, if you think about that, just in one city alone--and
that is spread out through the country. We are fighting for
these beds with other organizations. If you are a small
nonprofit that does not have connections with this place or
that place, you may not get a bed for your girls.
So why do we have to fight for beds? There should be enough
beds to go around. A girl should not have to choose sleeping
with a man for a place to sleep for the night or a place in a
nice bed where she feels safe. I have girls every day who have
to make the decision: sleep outside or sleep with a man.
Senator Hatch. Or sleep in the hospital like you did.
Ms. Graves. But hospitals have tightened their strings.
Senator Hatch. And only one night. Yes.
Ms. Graves. They have tightened their strings so you cannot
do that anymore because of the medication, and they are afraid
of other people being in the hospital, if you are not a
patient, after certain hours. But if you think about it, having
to make a decision like that at 12 years old, some girls even
younger--we had a client whom I saw when I first got to FAIR
Girls not too long ago who was 10 years old who still played
with Barbie dolls, stickers, and glitter. Luckily, she was able
to go to a hospital, the Psychiatric Institute of Washington,
and stay there for a while to get her stuff together.
But that is not always an option for girls who are almost
17 years old, because most foster homes do not want to take
them, most group homes do not want to take them because of
their age. So what do we tell these young ladies every day?
What are you going to tell the members in your district, when
you have a young victim in your district, that there is no bed
for you? That is just my one thing.
Senator Hatch. That is good.
Ms. Guymon?
Ms. Guymon. I would echo what Asia said. I think housing is
probably the biggest obstacle we have. But I would also say
that child welfare should be given the resources needed in
order to provide those services and have those resources for
young children so that we can get to a place where we
absolutely decriminalize these young girls so that they do not
come into the probation system.
I think it just gives, like I say, young girls the wrong
message. We are trying to work with them as victims, and they
often look at us like, well, if I am a victim, why am I in a
juvenile hall? So I think we have to work towards
decriminalization and then really support the child welfare
system to set up the services needed to support this
population.
Senator Hatch. All right.
Ms. Goldfarb?
Ms. Goldfarb. I would echo what Michelle has said. I really
believe that, if child welfare across the country really was
considering these kids to be among their kids and had the
policies and regulations to support that and the training to be
able to implement
trauma-informed care, that that would really be a first step
that would yield incredible benefits, because it would be the
first step in tying together the recovery response with the
whole system.
Senator Hatch. Thank you.
Judge Katz, let us finish with you.
Judge Katz. I do not think I can improve upon what has
already been said. I just want to highlight the trauma-informed
care, because these girls--and largely girls, but not
exclusively--have all been victims of trauma, and we need to be
very mindful of that in everything we do. But we also cannot
underestimate the value of the influx and infusing of money for
purposes of training and educating people.
Then finally, I think what you have done today, you have
really begun the process. I do not mean to sound pandering, but
I think the more attention you can put on this and the more you
raise awareness, you will have done an enormous amount to
advance the cause.
Senator Hatch. Well, thank you so much. I want to thank all
four of you. This has been dramatic testimony. It has been
effective testimony. It has been social testimony that is very
important, I think. I hope a lot of people have been watching
this.
We will see what we can do. I remember when Senator Kennedy
and I came together on the AIDS issue. Everybody was afraid of
it. I think they are probably a little bit afraid of this too.
But I told him, we have to do something about this. This is
terrible. Oh, yes, yes, he was ready to go. But, when we
brought it to the floor, we had a really rough time at first.
We finally passed it, then we passed two others that have made
a real difference.
Now, we have to have the best advice you can give us. Write
to us and help us to know what we can do to hopefully
comprehensively help in this area. I agree, I do not think the
States are doing what they should in this area, but a lot of it
is because they are lacking the funds too. They are lacking the
education, they are lacking the training, they are lacking a
lot of things, maybe even law enforcement.
They are lacking the understanding that these kids are not
criminals, they are exploited. So help us to know how to do
this better so we do not go off on just one or two routes to
try to solve this problem. Help us to do it so we can do it in
a comprehensive and decent way. I know that the chairman and I
will do everything in our power to try to help in this area.
So I just want to thank you all for being here. It means a
lot to me, and I think to every family in this country, every
social worker, religious worker, and so forth. Their hearts
have to go out to you for what you are doing. We all owe you a
debt of gratitude and thanks.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
I am trying to get a better handle on decriminalization. I
suppose in many States, prostitution is a crime, but coerced
sex is not. So how does law enforcement better determine that a
young girl is not a prostitute but that she has been coerced?
Is that an issue or not an issue? It is obvious to me that
forced sex should not be a crime. That is clear. What is the
issue here about decriminalization? Maybe somebody can help me
out a little bit. Judge?
Senator Hatch. Start with the age, I would think.
Judge Katz. I absolutely would begin with the age. Think
about the inconsistency. In most jurisdictions, children under
the age of, sometimes 18, sometimes 16, certainly at least 16,
are deemed incapable of consenting. So we prosecute, even in
boyfriend/girlfriend situations. We prosecute young men for
having sex with under-aged girls. In Connecticut, it is sexual
assault in the second degree, because they are incapable of
consenting.
But yet, to turn around then when it is a different type of
girl, a girl who has been trafficked, and then to say to her,
but you are a prostitute, I mean, the inconsistency is blatant.
So I think beginning certainly with age is very, very easy.
Enhancing the penalties certainly is very, very easy, in my
view. I mean, these are quick fixes, and I would certainly
begin there.
The Chairman. But can States not do this? Can States not
make this change?
Judge Katz. States can, and I would invite them to continue
to do so, as Connecticut has.
The Chairman. All right.
Ms. Guymon. And I think, just overall as a society, we have
always accepted prostitution. I know that growing up, when I
would hear the word ``prostitute,'' a 24-year-old woman's face
would come to my mind. But again, working in custody in
juvenile halls and in camps, we had 16-year-olds who were
arrested for prostitution. Again, I just assumed that this is
what she chose to do, and I just put her in a category.
I know driving down some of our streets in LA, you would
see young women out there. Again, just dismissing it, thinking,
well, that is what she chooses to do, and I will just stay out
of it and I will do my thing. So I think for a long time, I
think as a society, we have just kind of accepted it and driven
past it, and it is not my issue, it is not my problem.
So I think I felt that way until I became aware that it was
not about prostitution, teenaged prostitutes, it was really
that they were being sexually exploited, because, again, sex
trafficking only happened in other countries. So I think it was
just easy for me to wrap my head around that this was something
I just was not going to be involved in. Now that we know
better, I think things will start to change.
The Chairman. Right. I know it is hard to generalize, but
in LA do law enforcement officers know the difference? I mean,
are they sensitized or not?
Ms. Guymon. I think they are starting to know the
difference. I know that the Los Angeles Police Department has
taken on a real training initiative within all the different
LAPD stations, as well as our sheriff's department. I think
that is slowly starting to change. I think it has not always
been there.
I think probably the biggest frustration for law
enforcement is, it is easy to arrest and detain, because I
think they feel like that is the only option to keep her safe
from running right back. I think they are more conscious about
keeping her safe. I think that is why it is so important for us
to build other programs and other services so we do not just
default to detention, to know that other people can keep her
safe and provide that security. So I think we are getting
there.
The Chairman. I was going to ask that question too. That
is, clearly follow-up is essential. So what are you doing to
follow up with these girls who come in? Maybe you found a bed
and they can stay there at that site, but they are obviously
going to need some support services; they probably have no
father or mother. Their mother is probably on crack or heroin,
all that. So what are you doing about follow-up to keep them
from straying again?
Ms. Guymon. I think the biggest part of follow-up we are
doing in Los Angeles is, we are just trying to build a support
system around her. I think what we have done throughout a lot
of the training, especially with our foster homes and with our
group homes, is really about building connection.
We know that when these young girls run, we have not
provided that support and security for her. So we just talk a
lot about sticking with kids and not giving up, and, when she
runs, we take her back and we really build those support
networks around her.
I think, again, like someone said earlier, it is about
relationships, it is about connection and really trying to make
sure that we are there for her and that we do not let her down.
I think that is really a lot of what we have tried to do in
Los Angeles, with connections and support and building a
network of people with collaboration around the young girl.
The Chairman. Well, thank you very much. I am very proud of
all four of you. You work hard in what you do. You care. You,
Ms. Graves, you are very articulate. When you do go to law
school, you are obviously going to do what you want to do, but
I encourage you to continue to be a voice for girls who are in
your situation, your former situation, because you have the
experience, you have the passion, you are articulate, and you
are committed.
I just urge you, and all of you, to just keep it up. This
has been quite a hearing. This is quite something for the
Finance Committee, frankly. We have learned a lot, and we are
going to follow up. But thank you so much for your efforts and
for what you are doing. You are making a big difference for a
lot of kids. Thank you.
The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12 p.m., the hearing was concluded.]
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