The Tennessean: Nashville Launches Human Trafficking Court
Nashville will launch a first-in-the-state court program dedicated to identifying and helping victims of human trafficking, city leaders announced Tuesday.
The program's purpose is to identify victims and get them to services and help after they enter the justice system. One of the major goals: Identifying when defendants charged with prostitution or related crimes are actually trafficking victims.
"This new initiative will stop the cycle of shuffling prostitutes through our courtrooms without addressing the underlying reasons why they are there in the first place," Nashville General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland said, using his fingers as air quotes around the word "prostitutes."
Moreland will head the court. City leaders gathered in his fourth-floor courtroom in the Justice A.A. Birch courthouse downtown on Tuesday for a press conference.
Speakers included Mayor Megan Barry; District Attorney Glenn Funk and assistant prosecutor and sex-trafficking unit chief Tammy Meade; and Ondrea Johnson of End Slavery Tennessee, a victim advocacy group.
Shelia Simpkins, director of survivor services at End Slavery Tennessee, stood at the news conference with officials who support the program, but she did not speak publicly.
Simpkins was involved in trafficking and prostitution for 20 years, she said, from the time she ran away at 14 years old. A stranger bought her a drink and began selling her, she said. Simpkins said the court program will help victims break the cycle of addiction that forces them — and that forced her — into prostitution.
"What it means to me is women have options now," she told The Tennessean.
All cases with prostitution-related crimes will be sent to the new court program. Defendants who comply with court-ordered services can avoid jail time by accepting alternative resolutions — for example, drug or mental health treatment or job and life skills training — and have their cases dismissed.
The program will not cost participants anything, Meade said. Costs such as those for regular drug testing will be covered by the Davidson County Drug Court Foundation, a nonprofit. Bryan Lewis, an attorney and president of the board of the nonprofit, said he expected early costs of the program to be about $2,000 to $3,000 each month.
Combating trafficking has drawn increased focus in Tennessee in recent years.
Moreland said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation statistics showed more than 100 cases in Nashville in 2014 involved children being trafficked for sex. Last year, he said, Nashville had more than 600 prostitution arrests. Moreland says those numbers underestimate the number of victims.
Lawmakers have toughened penalties for traffickers, and Meade on Tuesday promised that the program's focus on victims did not mean perpetrators would be getting a break. TBI has launched an awareness campaign called It Has To Stop, and billboards went up this month.
The specialty court is expected to launch in February. Cities including New York, New Orleans and Chicago have similar programs. Music City's roster of specialty courts already includes veterans, mental health and drug treatment courts.
Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or on Twitter @sbarchenger.