The
State of New York is creating a statewide system that is designed to aid
victims of human and sex trafficking. It will do so by creating a statewide
system of specialized criminal courts to handle prostitution cases. The program
will identify trafficking victims and refer them to services like housing,
healthcare, immigration assistance, drug treatment and job assistance. Those
who manage to complete court-mandated programs can end up with non-criminal
dispositions and reduced or dismissed charges. This kind of initiative is
believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. “Eleven new courts across the
state, modeled on three narrower pilot projects in New York City and Nassau
County, will bring together specially trained prosecutors, judges and defense
lawyers, along with social workers and an array of other services, the chief
judge, Jonathan Lippman, said in a speech to the Citizens Crime Commission in
Midtown Manhattan.” Queens, Nassau County and Manhattan’s Midtown Community
Court have already set up as the three pilot parts, and all of the parts will
be up and running by the end of October. Steven Banks, the Legal Aid Society
attorney-in-chief has said that the new system was ““an extremely important step
forward nationally” to set up courts where people accused of prostitution and
related offenses can be connected to programs that offer what he called “a
pathway to change.””
He
also added that prostitution-related convictions leave victims of human
trafficking “indelibly scarred” and harm their future in many ways. The ability
to erase the trafficking-related prostitution conviction as well as the
establishment of the new court parts will literally provide these clients with
a second chance.
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