SHARE

Christie signs sweeping human trafficking bill into law

UPDATE: Gov. Chris Christie today signed a series of measures that increase penalties for human resources, while providing resources to prevent it.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot

The Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection and Treatment Act –given final state legislative approval in March — addresses a crime estimated to claim up to 20 million victims worldwide.

Among other measures, it:

  • creates a Commission on Human Trafficking to review laws and enforcement and make recommendations to state policy makers;
  • establishes a ‘Human Trafficking Survivor’s Assistance Fund’ to provide victims’ services, promote awareness, and develop training and educational materials;
  • increases both financial penalties and prison time for those who traffic individuals.

At the same time, Christie signed bills  designating each January as “Human Trafficking Prevention Month” and Jan. 11 as “Human Trafficking Awareness Day.”

“As public officials, we have a solemn responsibility to prevent and protect citizens from the dark world of human trafficking,” he said.

The series of steps made official today, he said, “strengthens and expands the state’s ongoing efforts to aggressively combat this brutal practice, and also ensures that the victims of human trafficking receive the treatment they need.

NJ State Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (Bergen)

“There are two important messages contained in this bill. To victims: You’re not alone. To perpetrators: We’re coming after you,” said one of the measure’s primary sponsors, state Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle.

In drafting the legislation, the Bergen County lawmaker spent the better part of last year gathering information at meetings with experts and advocates, including the NJ Coalition against Human Trafficking, an alliance comprised of the Junior League, the NJ Catholic Conference, The League of Women Voters and the NJ State Association of Jewish Federations, among other organizations.

“Victims are often children and vulnerable women who are too afraid and dependent on traffickers to break their silence and seek help,” she said. “Many times they are exploited for years and coerced into prostitution, labor, and drug activity.

“When they finally have a chance to regain their freedom, they are prosecuted for the crimes they were forced to commit while enslaved,” Vainieri Huttle said, “while the real perpetrators remain untouched by the law.

“With this bill, we hope to change all that.”

The 15-member Human Trafficking Commission, created within the state Department of Law and Public Safety, would “evaluate existing laws concerning human trafficking and enforcement, as well as review existing victim assistance programs, and promote a coordinated response by public and private resources for victims of human trafficking,” Assembly Democrats said yesterday.

The bill would also establish a separate, non-lapsing, dedicated “Human Trafficking Survivor’s Assistance Fund,” administered by the Attorney General’s Office with recommendations from the commission, to provide services to victims of human trafficking and promote awareness of the crime.

At the same time, the measure dramatically increases fines and penalties for activities associated with human trafficking (the fines would go into the assistance fund):

“Any form of criminal human trafficking, such as recruiting individuals or financing an operation, would be a crime of the first degree with a fine of at least $25,000;

“Anyone who knowingly owns, controls, manages, leases or supervises a premises where human trafficking is carried on, and fails to make a reasonable effort to eject the tenant or notify law enforcement authorities would be charged with a crime of the first degree, carrying a term of imprisonment of 10 to 20 years, a fine of at least $25,000, or both;

“Anyone who promotes prostitution by transporting a person into or within the state for that purpose or knowingly leases or permits a place to be used for that purpose would be charged with a crime of the third degree, punishable by imprisonment of three to five years; a fine of up to $15,000; or both; and

“A person would be strictly liable for a crime of the first degree for holding, recruiting, luring, enticing, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining, by any means, a child under 18 years of age to engage in sexual activity, whether or not the actor mistakenly believed that the child was 18 years of age or older, even if that mistaken belief was reasonable.

“Anyone who advertises commercial sexual abuse of a minor, such as escort services, would be charged with a crime of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment of 10 to 20 years, a fine of at least $25,000 but not more than $200,000; or both.”

The bill also allows human trafficking victims to file a civil claim even if there’s no criminal prosecution, and expedites the eviction process for tenants engaged in human trafficking.

There’s more:

The act establishes the “John School Rehabilitative Program” to educate johns about the health risks and legal consequences of hiring a hooker.

Modeled after similar “john school” programs in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and West Palm Beach, the program would take in offenders who must pay $500 fines — $200 of which would go to the surivor’s fund, $100 of which would go to the arresting municipality toward providing incentives for investigation and enforcement, and $200 to cover the cost of the “school.”

The bill would also mandate law enforcement training on responding to the needs of human trafficking victims.

Although the state Division of Criminal Justice has reported 179 cases of sex and labor trafficking in New Jersey over the past seven years, experts estimate that countless thousands occur each year statewide.

At the national level, the U.S. State Department estimates that 50,000 men, women and children are illegally trafficked into the country annually.

New Jersey’s General’s Office had led an offensive in recent years that brought 179 cases of human trafficking to investigation between September 2005 and March 2012. They included 93 victims trafficked for labor, 60 for sex, and 26 for both labor and sex trafficking, the governor’s office said.

 

to follow Daily Voice Pascack Valley and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE