Human Trafficking-- What is Texas Doing Right Now?

So I haven't blogged in months, but I saw this and decided it needed to be discussed. My poli-sci and social work degrees require that I talk about this :). In the Texas legislature right now is House Bill 91 and its corresponding partner Senate Bill 92. First, I am going to break down what each bill says and tell you why those of us who are against child prostitution, against human trafficking, and for survivor rehabilitation should care about these bills.

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.

Oh so much!

Oh so much to write about, prepare yourself! The end is the best, so skip to the bottom if you get bored ;)

First off:

Husband

The husband is doing much better. We had a near incident where his wife was going to go down to Ft. Hood and kick some cammo butt. 3 days post-op we were running low on pain meds so we call and are told that it will take 72 hours...we would be out in 48 hours. In order to have the refill in time apparently we should have ordered the refill the day of the surgery... Being on only a few hours of sleep (meds every 4 hours--puppy going out on alternating 2 hours), I was a little irritable. So I call the clinic and am informed that since my husband was not with me (since I was at work) that they couldn't talk to me. As panic and anger set in, I called in the Big Guns... my father... who then got on the phone with our local congressman, who called the office of the congressman in charge of the Ft. Hood area... and then the doctor called back and the refill was complete... Crisis averted! Looking back now, I may have pre-maturely panicked; however, the idea of my husband in serious pain was not okay and I would rip down full-grown oak trees covered in honeybees if needed to prevent that!

Married Life

We finally got some honeymoon photos back. It was such a blast. I highly recommend Atlantis! Everything was right there: dolphins, waterpark, food, aquarium, beach, several pools, snorkeling, shopping, spa and a casino (which we didn't use). And going in May was perfect because there weren't very many kids there yet. We had an ocean view room that overlooked several ponds with rays and sea turtles.

The waterpark was crazy fun! I know it's silly, but the tube ride that ends with sharks swimming over your head was really cool! We also got to snorkel in the aquarium (where these 2 HUGE Rays tried to eat us...and then I swear they giggles about it! I saw bubbles) and swim with dolphins...twice! :)

Just Liz

So I've been having some soul-searching and discontentment with life lately. I've been feeling a little unfulfilled and frustrated with day-to-day life. I love my husband, my parents, and my pup. My health has been okay, but not great. But when the 3rd person in one week asked if I was pregnant I got a little paranoid. I decided to start running (especially since it helps with job-related frustration)... So I started with 2 minutes of running, 3 walking (since I haven't run since before the pelvic fracture almost 2 years ago) I figured that was good place to start. I created a whole running plan that had me up to 20 minutes of running by my birthday in September... Unfortunately, my pelvis did not agree to this plan... OUCH! I paid for it for a few days. So no more running, must try some thing lower impact... Swimming was suggested; I need a pool! Which brings us to the next thing; husband and I are planning to start loan shopping next week to start building a house (hopefully with a pool)... I am currently obsessed with http://www.houzz.com/. So fun!

So after running out of ways to improve myself and my life, I realized what I really need to do... the thing I've been talking about since undergrad...

Introducing...

Shelter and Support for Trafficked and Enslaved Persons (SSTEP)

There will be much more to come regarding this. My goal by the end of the weekend is the get some media stuff up and running, to include a blog and facebook page. Which means the first order of business is the get a logo... any ideas? If you want to learn more about trafficking in the U.S. look at my links on the right side. Really excited about getting this going!