By : Subuk Hasnain
Thu, 07/11/2013 - 12:37pm
The City Council Committees on Human Relations and Public Safety held a joint hearing on Wednesday to address concerns about the rising incidence of human trafficking in Chicago and to call attention to measures designed to prevent the practice.
Current law concerning human trafficking defines the victims as children involved in sex trade, adults age 18 or above who are forced or deceived into commercial sex acts and anyone forced into any form of labor or services.
The resolution calling for Wednesday’s meeting was introduced by Alds. Robert Fioretti (2nd) and Toni Foulkes (15th) in an effort to gather public comment, law enforcement opinion, feedback from survivors of human trafficking and information from representatives of advocacy groups. Fioretti and Foulkes during the meeting emphasized that Chicago needs to implement measures focused on preventing human trafficking and the conditions that lead to it.
“In 2011 in Chicago there were more than 2,300 charges against people in prostitution,” said Fioretti. “Only forty charges were made against pimps, johns or traffickers who created the demand for the sex trade.”
There are currently a few rehabilitation programs in the Chicago area designed specifically to provide services to victims of human trafficking. They include Cook County’s WINGS Program, SAGE – a program run by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless – and the Dreamcatcher Foundation.
Leeanna Majors, the leader of SAGE, said no services were provided to her during her 33 years in prostitution. She was 51 and addicted to drugs when she finally received help from Cook County’s WINGS Program, which helps to provide women in the commercial sex trade with mental rehabilitation and drug abuse treatment. “We need this city to step up” and continue efforts to end human trafficking, Majors told the committee.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez explained to aldermen that she began the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force as a joint project between her office and the Salvation Army STOP-IT Program. The task force is jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office for Victims of Crime, and it aims to connect law enforcement with social and legal agencies to work on human trafficking cases.
Alvarez insisted the focus should be on people who create the demand for human trafficking and how Chicago can take steps to address the control that abusers have on the girls they recruit. The task force has succeeded securing a sentence of 18 years in prison for one defendant, while other cases are still pending, the state’s attorney explained.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Greg Wing suggested that aldermen increase penalties associated with these crimes. Lynne Johnson from Chicago Alliance Against Exploitation told committee members that a zero-tolerance policy needs to be implemented.
Brenda Myers-Powell from the Dreamcatcher Foundation said pimps and johns are constantly looking for innovative ways to recruit and spread their business. As a survivor of abuse, drugs and prostitution, Powell described the human trafficking industry as a complex system which involved police officers and other people on the “inside.” “We need something realistic,” Powell insisted.
This article was originally published on the Daily Whale website in 2013.