Georgia lawmakers pursue stronger effort against sex trafficking

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Lawmakers launched a new attack Wednesday on Georgia’s child sex trafficking problem, proposing that the state help victims get back on their feet while also hitting convicted traffickers and the businesses they haunt where it most hurts: their wallet.

The "Safe Harbor/Rachel's Act" legislation represents an unusual alliance between Senate and House members, including a longtime child advocate, a former Gwinnett County prosecutor and a lawyer who wanted their work to honor a young woman named Rachel "who no longer wants to be a victim," said state Rep. Andy Welch, R-McDonough.

The proposal would establish a new Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund, which would get money through new $2,500 fines on convicted traffickers and an annual $5,000 fee on adult entertainment establishments. The money would then pay for physical and mental health care, housing, education, job training, child care, legal help and other services for victims.

It has other components, including a mandate that convicted traffickers be listed on the state sex offender registry — something that doesn’t happen now. More importantly, supporters say it closes more doors on an industry that flourishes not only in Atlanta but its suburbs, where Internet access is easy and people have disposable income.

"No child grows up and says, 'I want to be a prostitute, I want to live on the street, I want to be hungry,' " said Senate Health and Human Services Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford, who is working with Welch along with state Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula.

“There’s a philosophical difference. I assume every child is a victim. The other side believes that they’re criminals and that there’s good and bad and that they choose a bad road to take and they should be punished and go to DJJ (the state Department of Juvenile Justice),” Unterman said. “I say, many times in those facilities, they learn more bad behavior. I would rather deliver therapeutic services and try to rehabilitate them. I assume that a child of 16 or 17 years old is a victim because they’re usually coerced.”

Unterman's Senate Bill 8 sets out the parameters of the proposal. Her Senate Resolution 7 would ask voters statewide for permission to create the new state fund and use it solely to help trafficking victims — because SR 7 proposes amending the state Constitution, it requires a higher bar to pass the Legislature, including a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Welch will introduce similar legislation in the House with the goal of eventually crafting a compromise that wins passage.

It’s an effort that has won over law enforcement authorities, who especially want to close unintentional loopholes left on the books after 2011, when lawmakers increased penalties for sex trafficking, including more jail time and a fine up to $100,000.

“One of the things we’ve seen over the last several years, especially with the advent of social media … is children’s ready access to the Internet,” said Gwinnett County Police Chief Butch Ayers, who supports the legislation. “Danger is just a click away.”

One problem facing those who want to stop trafficking in Georgia is a lack of clear data on how big the problem is. A 2012 Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found that state agencies and private groups failed to keep accurate records and relied on unscientific research to quantify the problem.

A 2014 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, however, found that the underground commercial sex market in metro Atlanta remained strong. The report, conducted by the Urban Institute, found that the sex trade flourished in Georgia through massage parlors, street-level prostitution and secret brothels.

“Women at the massage parlors are brought to the United States with a variety of tactics,” the report says, adding that, in the Atlanta area, the massage parlors are mostly located around Chamblee and Doraville. “Some were sex workers in their home country, and some are enticed with promises of better life and work in the United States (and then forced into sex work to pay off debts). Many women are smuggled through Canada and initially brought to New York, where they are then filtered down the East Coast or sent to the West Coast.”

Kasey McClure knows the state’s sex market firsthand. At 17 she was a lingerie model. A year later she was stripping at the Gold Club in Atlanta.

“It was my way of getting out of poverty,” said McClure, now 36.

Dazzled by the money — she could make hundreds or thousands of dollars a night in tips — McClure said she drifted out of society and became immersed in the business.

“My whole life was centered around the industry,” she said.

Eventually, however, she left the clubs and went to church. Now, McClure runs 4Sarah, a nonprofit that helps girls and women get out of that life.

McClure recently hosted a tour of Atlanta’s seedy underbelly for a group of lawmakers, activists and journalists. From the comfy confines of a chartered bus, McClure explained how she and her co-workers make monthly trips into strip clubs. They bring the dancers gift bags of cosmetics and flowers, along with information on how to get help should they need it.

Most club owners, she said, welcome them in. But not all.

“There are strip clubs that follow the rules,” she said. “There are lower-end clubs that are more shady.”

During the tour, as the bus lurched through traffic near Piedmont and Cheshire Bridge roads, McClure pointed out clubs where they are welcomed and others where backroom brothels operate.

“Right there, I know there are girls in there right now” who are forced or coerced into prostitution, she said.

McClure and her staff also spend time on the Internet, specifically an online classified service, similar to Craigslist, only without any filtering or rules against escort ads. On that site, prostitutes openly offer their services, along with photographs and phone numbers for clients to arrange a tryst. Often, though, it’s not the women themselves creating the ads, but pimps who control their lives.

McClure calls these girls, explains who she is and her history in the industry and offers information about scholarship programs, hot lines and more. She demonstrated during the tour, calling two girls who were interested in learning more about the scholarships and agreed to receive text messages about ways to get out of the industry.

More recently, McClure’s group was contacted by a woman who said her 14-year-old granddaughter had been missing since December. With a description, McClure was able to find the girl advertising on the same website. A day later, DeKalb County police and the FBI rescued her, McClure said.

State authorities, too, are targeting traffickers. On Jan. 30, Attorney General Sam Olens announced a 16-count indictment against Khiry Price on allegations of commercial sexual exploitation involving three underage girls. The charges against him include trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, aggravated child molestation and statutory rape.

Authorities allege that Price enticed three runaway girls into sexual servitude. He marketed the girls online for prostitution, had sex with one of the girls and physically abused two, according to Olens’ office.

“Child sex trafficking is an unconscionable crime that victimizes too many vulnerable children,” Olens said.