Human Trafficking Ballot Initiative Would Give Calif. Toughest Laws in U.S.
Posted by arthur in 
FREMONT, Calif. — Mar. 11, 2010 — Vicki Zito’s daughter became a victim of human trafficking in Northern California when a trafficker abducted her from the Sacramento-area to the Bay Area and sold her on the Craigslist “erotic services” Web site. The 17-year-old girl was repeatedly violated in the eight days she was missing in March 2008. FBI agents and police found the girl being held by her trafficker in a Motel 6 in Fremont, Calif.
“No child is safe from domestic human trafficking,” said Zito, a nurse and mother of four in El Dorado Hills, Calif. “When this evil robbed my child of her innocence and hope, as a parent I had no other choice but to speak and to act on behalf of my child and other children as well.”
Zito is working with volunteers across California to collect the necessary signatures to place an initiative on the statewide ballot that would deter traffickers with stiffer criminal penalties, aid district attorneys in prosecuting human trafficking offenses, increase protection for human trafficking victims, mandate two-hour human trafficking training for law enforcement officers, and provide a greater allocation of certain seized assets and fines to organizations that serve human trafficking victims.
“Current California law does not adequately reflect the severity of this heinous crime,” said Daphne Phung, executive director of California Against Slavery, the non-profit group behind the ballot initiative.
“This ballot initiative is a comprehensive and effective response to an epidemic that plagues our state and must be stopped in order to protect our children from what is modern day slavery,” said Sharmin Bock, a nationally recognized and respected human trafficking expert. “If this initiative is passed, we will have the toughest and best human trafficking law in the country, and California will be the last place on the planet that a trafficker would want to do business. If California voters approve this initiative, I predict that traffickers will flee as fast as possible from our state, and we will have done our very best to protect our state’s most precious resource, our children.”
A human trafficking offense is currently punishable by a state prison sentence of three to five years for trafficking of an adult or four to eight years for trafficking of a minor. The ballot initiative would increase sentences to six to 16 years for trafficking of an adult and up to 15 years to life for trafficking of a minor. The ballot initiative further protects minors by allowing district attorneys to prove sex trafficking of a minor without a showing of force.
“We desperately need to see revision in our state law with regard to human trafficking,” said Jenny Williamson, founder and president of Courage to Be You, a Sacramento-area organization that rescues and restores victims of child sex trafficking. Williamson supports the ballot initiative’s stronger punishments, better protection for victims, and mandatory law enforcement training. “Our courageous law enforcement officers must be equipped and encouraged with specific training to better identify and rescue victims of human trafficking, and to lock up the traffickers.”
To learn more about the ballot initiative, visit http://www.CaliforniaAgainstSlavery.org
Contact: Daphne Phung, executive director and founder of California Against Slavery
E-mail info@CaliforniaAgainstSlavery.org or call (510) 473-7283
