Texas Couldn’t Help This Sex-Trafficked Teen, So Authorities Sent Her To Jail

No one wanted Lena behind bars. She was not a prostitute; she was a child who had been sexually exploited. But teenage sex-trafficking victims in Texas end up in jail for one simple reason: There’s nowhere else for them to go.

Neena Satija
Morgan Smith
Edgar Walters
By Neena Satija
And Morgan Smith
And Edgar Walters
17-year-old Lena waits to be released from the Harris County Jail, with a small bag of her possessions. Her mentor gave her a blue jumpsuit to wear over her skimpy clothes. (Photo: Callie Richmond/The Texas Tribune)

HOUSTON (REPORT) — For three months in the fall of 2016, Lena was one of the youngest inmates in the Harris County Jail. The 17-year-old lived with two dozen women in a single room. She slept on a metal bunk and wore an oversized orange jumpsuit every day. She went to the bathroom with no privacy, using a toilet attached to the wall. Yet compared

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Houston’s Hosting The Super Bowl & A Growing Human Trafficking Industry

Human trafficking gets a lot of buzz around the Super Bowl, as officials and reporters warn about a spike in prostitution. But there’s little data to support this, and those fighting human trafficking warn that it distracts from the issue plaguing cities year-round.

Derrick Broze
By Derrick Broze

HOUSTON --- (INVESTIGATION)  On Sunday Feb. 5, the Super Bowl arrives in Houston, a city plagued by a growing human trafficking industry that puts children and women at risk for physical violence and psychological abuse. In 2011, when he was serving as the state’s attorney general and the big game was being held in Dallas, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

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NJ Works To Curb Sex Trafficking Before Super Bowl

Trafficking has been an issue for years at the Super Bowl — This year, New Jersey is enlisting a task force of law enforcement, community groups, social workers, internet sites and even civilians to help spot and hopefully deter the crime.

Associated Press
By Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Law enforcement agents in New Jersey have redoubled efforts to fight what they worry could be one of the biggest menaces to come with next month's Super Bowl: sex trafficking. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to descend on New Jersey for the Feb. 2 football game. Many believe the state's sprawling

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Nonprofit Opens Florida’s First ‘Safe Home’ For Sex Trafficking Victims

Unlike conventional safe houses, this one will be equipped much like a normal home, geared to help trafficked women adjust to normal life.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

In about two weeks, a Florida nonprofit will open a first-of-its-kind safe house that offers sex trafficking survivors in the state -- which has the third-highest number of human trafficking victims in the United States -- an alternative to living life on the streets. Modeled after safe houses in Atlanta run by Wellspring Living, the Selah Freedom

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NY Announces Statewide Court System Designed To Help Sex Trafficking Victims

The courts are intended to connect prostitutes to a support network rather than charge them with a crime.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

In an effort to better handle cases related to or involving prostitution, the state of New York is creating and implementing a statewide court system that is specifically designed to help prostitutes by treating prostitution not as a crime, but as modern-day slavery. What this means is that starting in October, any prostitution case that is not

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Human Rights Groups Urge UN To Not Recommend Legalized Prostitution

Some groups are bucking the trend of arguing that legal prostitution reduces human trafficking.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

Already legalized in 50 countries and partially legal in 11 other countries, including the U.S., the U.N. Human Rights Council says one way to end human trafficking is to legalize prostitution. Though prostitution is not legal throughout the U.S., there are portions of Nevada where it is legal. While the U.N. has not officially recommended

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