Hawaii Needs a Safe Harbor Bill to Protect Juvenile Sex Trafficking Victims

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By Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery – Currently, Hawaii has no protocol to legally detain juveniles rescued from prostitution without criminalizing them. The Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery (PASS) is urging the Hawaii State Legislature to pass a Safe harbor Bill which would give minors immunity from prosecution and refer these victimized children to proper rehabilitative and healing services rather than to incarceration.

PASS is also urging the legislature to pass an End Demand Bill which seeks to increase penalties for patrons of prostitution/sex-trafficking, commonly referred to as “johns.” The existing penalty for johns is a petty misdemeanor, equivalent to the fine of riding a bicycle on the sidewalk. The penalty for the offense of fueling prostitution/sex-trafficking, by providing the demand, has not been updated in Hawaii since the law was created in the early 70s.

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Please help Hawaii pass these bills because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Help us stop the growth of child-trafficking in America.

FACTS: Hawaii’s incarceration rate of juvenile girls exceed the national average. Of these offenses, about 35% are runaways. Hawaii has one of the highest rates of intrafamilial sexual abuse (or incest) and also has one of the highest attempted teen suicide rates in the nation. There are approximately 300 children reported missing in Hawaii per month. There are no law enforcement stats for child sex-trafficking because of the lack of a state sex-trafficking law.

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  1. it is a shame that we in the beautiful island State of Hawaii have to be subjected to the atrocities of being an exporter of drugs, importer of human trafficking, and abortion at will. Our State is indeed beautiful and we need to take back our State from the liberals who look the other way for the sake of profits.

    All people with any decency should demand that laws are made and enforced to put these "Johns" in jail for the duration of their life. They pollute our environment and we need to clean it up.

    Stand for the dignity of every human being, both born and unborn. If we can fight for the whales and the environment, why cannot we band together to save human beings?

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