Bill to toughen Ky human trafficking laws passes House panel

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A measure that would strengthen Kentucky human trafficking laws and provide more resources to Kentucky trafficking victims passed the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

House Bill 350 will now go to to the full House. The measure would strengthen Kentucky’s human trafficking laws by increasing fines and would also increase training for Kentucky law enforcement about human trafficking. The bill would create a Human Trafficking Victims Fund, where some of the fines and assets seized in the forfeiture of people convicted of human trafficking would be used to treat victims.

Kentucky passed laws in 2007 that made human trafficking a crime but there has been little education about the law. Kentucky needs to update its laws to address a growing problem nationally and internationally, said Rep. Sannie Overly, D-Paris, and sponsor of HB 350.

“Those laws are not being utilized,” Overly told the committee on Wednesday.

Marissa Castellanos, of Catholic Charities in Louisville, said there have been 67 cases of human trafficking and 12 indictments in Kentucky since 2007. Approximately 52 percent of those victims were trafficked for sex and 42 percent were trafficked for labor purposes.

“We believe that is just the tip of the ice berg,” Castellanos said.

Castellanos has said previously that there have yet to be any convictions on human trafficking related charges. That’s why Kentucky law enforcement needs more education and more tools to address human trafficking, Overly said.

By creating a specialized unit in the Kentucky State Police, there will be officers that specialize in human trafficking who can assist other law enforcement and prosecutors, Overly said. In many cases human trafficking is connected to other aspects of organized crime.

Kentucky’s internet crimes against children unit has been recognized as one of the best in the country.

The bill would also make it a crime to patronize prostitution or patronize a minor for prostitution.

Gretchen Hunt, of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, said the bill also makes providing false identification to victims a crime. Often times, their traffickers provide underage victims fake IDs that show that they are older than they are. The identification also gives them a new name making it difficult for law enforcement to determine that they have been trafficked from other countries or other states, said Castellanos.

But Ernie Lewis, who represents the state’s criminal defense lawyers, told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the new crimes would have higher penalties than other similar sex crimes. Lewis said that he opposes prostitution but said that for the laws to be just, there should be parity.

But Overly said that there have been long-time problems with disparities in sentencing for sex crimes, but the current bill can not correct those disparities.

Castellanos said that her organization has depended on federal funds to treat victims of human trafficking. But those federal funds have been cut over the past few years.

If more people are going to be rescued from human trafficking they need more services, advocates said.

The House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the measure 12-0.

Filed Under: KY General Assembly • Social Services • State Government