(C) Ohio Capital Journal
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Republicans introduce bill that would expunge non-violent crimes for human trafficking victims [1]
['Megan Henry', 'More From Author', '- January']
Date: 2024-01-24
A pair of Republican Ohio lawmakers are trying to expunge certain non-violent crimes for human trafficking victims.
State Reps. Tracy Richardson, R-Marysville, and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, introduced a bill which would expand eligible offenses for expungement to include certain misdemeanors and fifth-and fourth-degree felonies. The bill is waiting to be assigned a number.
“This legislation will open doors for survivors of human trafficking by expanding the pathway to expungement of their criminal records for crimes they committed as a result of being trafficked,” Richardson said Tuesday during a press conference.
Human trafficking victims can currently have their records expunged for convicted crimes of soliciting, loitering and prostitution. Expungement is not an automatic process and people must go through a hearing process.
“Victims of human trafficking … often are forced to engage in criminal activity by their victimizers,” Williams said.
Typically, a human trafficking victim will interact with law enforcement seven times, meaning most survivors have a criminal record, Richardson said.
“Carrying a criminal record can be a major roadblock to gainful employment, stable housing, and educational opportunities, all of which are crucial when a survivor is trying to exit their situation,” she said.
Human trafficking survivor Annette Mango shared the struggles she faced re-entering society with a criminal record, specifically when it came to finding a place to live and work.
But that all changed once she got her record expunged.
“I’m happy. I’m ecstatic,” said Mango, the survivor-ambassador for the Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Initiative.
“When I go for an apartment, I don’t have to worry about them saying that I’m going to be a menace to society,” she said. “When I go for another job, I don’t have to worry about them saying ‘hey, what about this human trafficking?'”
Samantha Salamon, chief counsel at Asian Services in Action, says she regularly sees human trafficking victims with a drug possession charge.
“A lot of traffickers issue or use substances such as drugs, to coerce and to put under duress individuals so that they would in fact, commit crimes,” Salamon said. “And a lot of traffickers force the survivors to actually hold their drugs. So therefore, if the survivors are caught with drugs, they are the ones who are charged. This opens up the doors of opportunities for those individuals to get their records expunged.”
State Sen. Stephanie Kunze, R-Hilliard, also introduced a Senate companion bill.
Human trafficking in Ohio
There were 2,813 recorded human trafficking cases in Ohio from 2007 to 2020, Williams said.
The Human Trafficking Hotline has received 11,224 signals and identified 3,102 cases of human trafficking in Ohio since 2007. 6,013 victims were identified in those cases. In 2021, the hotline received 232 tips about sex trafficking, 23 about labor trafficking and 16 about sex and labor trafficking.
Ohio is a target for human trafficking for many reasons including its close proximity to the Canadian border, location to several major cities and high number of truck stops, according to Human Trafficking Front.
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.
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