HOUSE BILL 91 / SENATE BILL 92
This bill starts off by discussing designation of a juvenile court and a pre-adjudication diversion program (meaning the child wouldn't have to even go to court) for certain juveniles who are being charged with engaging in prostitution. This proposal states that there must be one court per county that is designated to handle these cases. These following ammendments to the current way juveniles charged with prostitution are being handled only apply to juveniles who seem to have been trafficked (For the purposes of Texas law, Human Trafficking is forced labor or services).
Law enforcement officers may NOT issue warnings to a child, but MUST take them into custody if the officer has probable cause that the child is engaging in prostitution because of being trafficked. This is great, because it may help rescue a child who otherwise had no safe way out of the situation.
The next section of the proposed bill provides non-mandatory (but suggested) guidelines for how juvenile records are kept/disposed of and whether or not the child may complete a “first offender” program to have his/her record expunged prior to becoming an adult. It provides the option of a Trafficked Persons Court Program to allow for deferred adjudication and/or dismissal of the criminal charges related to prostitution. The juvenile board (discussed and mandated above) basically has free-rein to design this and/or other programs for child survivors of trafficking under these amendments to the bill.
Okay, so why do we care? Basically, this allows there to be alternatives to locking kids up into juvie for something they didn’t have a choice to be involved in when it began. Also it allows for education to assist these kids in learning how to not be victimized again. Now, here is my question… where will these children be living while they are attending these classes? What will they do when they are not in the program? Will the program be designed as a school-type program (all day classes), a therapeutic environment, or a class once a week? From the simple reading of the bill, it looks like that is up to the juvenile court that is designated with this task in each county.
And this brings me back to SSTEP, which would be an ideal way to do this program. I am hoping to meet with some of the Texas legislators in the next few weeks to discuss HB91/SB92 and how SSTEP can be a part of this program.
