NEW YORK, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A New New York court will handle all prostitution and human trafficking cases rather than have them filter through regular criminal court, a top judge said.
The state plans to set up courts in each of New York City's five boroughs and five other courts from Long Island to Buffalo. Their sole purpose is to oversee cases involving prostitution and human trafficking with a goal of supplying women who work in the sex trade with access to social welfare programs, immigration services and other potential benefits, The New York Times said Wednesday.
Jonathon Lippman, chief judge of the state's top court, the New York State Court of Appeals, said such a court would be modeled after successful specialty courts to address cases surrounding domestic violence and low-level drug offenses. The prostitution and human trafficking court would try to keep defendants from returning to the sex trade.
The effort, the first of its kind in the United States, follows a series of laws passed by the state Legislature aimed at ending sexual exploitation. One mandates anyone below the age of 18 who is arrested for prostitution be treated as a victim of sexual abuse rather than criminally charged as a prostitute; another allows women convicted of prostitution to vacate their sentences if they clean up their act; a third law formally criminalized sex and labor trafficking.
"It's certainly critical that underlying all of this is the concept of providing a helping hand rather than the back of a hand," said Steven Banks of the Legal Aid Society. "Survivors of trafficking are left with literally an indelible scar in the form of a criminal record that affects employment, housing, financial aid for college and government benefits and even the ability to stay in this country."
