| Dear Heather, Two weeks ago, Maryland police entered a Baltimore hotel room to find a 19-year-old woman held against her will and violently forced into prostitution by East Coast pimp Edward Perkins. Who knows how much money Perkins made forcing this teenager to have sex with paying customers, but thanks to a glaring loophole in Maryland law, the victim won't see a dime of it. Some states have "asset forfeiture" laws for human trafficking -- laws that ensure that trafficked women and children see some of the money their captors made by trafficking them. But not Maryland. In this case, an asset forfeiture law would mean that the money Perkins earned from selling his victim on Backpage.com – even if he used it to buy cars, jewelry, or other assets – can be used to help his victims seek counseling, pay legal fees, and find housing. In addition to being left without financial help, the young woman won't have any prostitution convictions removed from her record, despite being a victim of sex trafficking. That's because Maryland doesn't expunge convictions for trafficked people. So in Maryland, traffickers like Perkins keep their ill-gotten money to hire lawyers, and their victims are often left penniless and struggling with undeserved criminal records. Two proposed bills in the Maryland legislature would address these serious issues, and the first committee vote is scheduled for this week -- if it fails, the bills likely won't pass until 2012 at the earliest. HB 418 would allow Maryland to seize the profits from human traffickers and use that money to aid law enforcement and victim service providers, thus removing the financial burden of fighting human trafficking from Maryland taxpayers. SB 327 would allow the courts to order traffickers to pay their victims restitution and reverse commercial sex convictions for all human trafficking victims. Tell the Maryland legislature to pass HB 418 and SB 327 before Friday's vote comes and goes. Victims of trafficking are depending on us: http://www.change.org/petitions/marylanders-please-help-bring-human-trafficking-to-an-end-in-maryland?alert_id=aTMKFNKkTW_PqLQldsJGq&me=aa Thanks for taking action, - Patrick and the Change.org team
I get these emails every once and a while to sign petitions and this one made me so angry! I can't believe this isn't a law already, but it's too late to sign the petition now. I just thought I'd make whoever reads this aware!
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