海角大神

Barbara Amaya was a few months into a new job when her boss called her over and showed her a stack of papers, asking, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 this?鈥�

It was her criminal record 鈥� but she didn鈥檛 know how to explain that all those prostitution arrests happened because she had been forced by a trafficker. The single mother of a 3-year-old at that time, she had to start the job hunt all over again.

Those criminal records 鈥渇ollowed me in every way, shape, and form throughout my life,鈥� Ms. Amaya says. 鈥淓ven if they didn鈥檛 affect every application I filled out, they affected me mentally 鈥� carrying the stigma of being called a criminal.鈥�

It would take Amaya many years to fully understand her own innocence. She had been labeled a prostitute and a criminal by a system that hadn鈥檛 recognized how young she was and how she was being manipulated. While she had been enduring years of rape, her trafficker had been profiting, and had convinced her everything was her fault.

Many people who have escaped trafficking have struggled to put their lives back on track while constantly running up against the barrier of criminal background checks. They get an education, but then can鈥檛 get work or promotions. They apply for housing and get solicited for sex by an unscrupulous landlord. They aren鈥檛 allowed to chaperone their child鈥檚 class trip.

鈥淭o have that record on the books, it鈥檚 like a lifetime of stigma,鈥� says Meredith Dank, director of the Exploitation and Resiliency Project at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Survivors can鈥檛 get a license for nursing or social work, for instance, unless they 鈥済o in front of a committee and explain,鈥� which is incredibly traumatizing.鈥�

The past decade has seen a paradigm shift in the understanding of human trafficking. As survivors have spoken out about the abuse and coercion that traffickers employ, the majority of states have passed laws that give minors 鈥渟afe harbor鈥� from criminal prosecution for prostitution.

Advocates saw signs of progress in Monday鈥檚 decision by outgoing Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam to听commute the life sentence听of Cyntoia Brown, who was being trafficked as a teen and was convicted in 2006 of murdering a man who had paid to use her for sex. Ms. Brown will be released in August and have supervised parole.听In a public statement, Brown, now 30, thanked the governor and said, 鈥淢y hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been.鈥�

Brown鈥檚 case is an extreme, but the pardon is part of a slow-moving shift toward a more victim-centered approach. Yet some minors are still prosecuted, and many trafficking survivors have been living in the shadow of such records for decades.听

That鈥檚 where 鈥渃riminal-records relief鈥� laws come in 鈥� offering a chance to erase those unjust convictions.听

New York State鈥檚 pioneering law has been in place since 2010. And 42 states plus the District of Columbia have followed. The laws vary greatly, with some only offering the sealing or expungement of records. But some go so far as to provide for vacatur, which is basically an acknowledgment by the court that the person should not have been convicted.

A handful of states, such as California, Florida, and Nebraska, allow for many offenses other than prostitution to be cleared as well, as long as they stemmed directly from being trafficked.

Having the laws on the books is just one step. Awareness of the laws 鈥� by court clerks, advocates, lawyers, and even survivors themselves 鈥� is still ramping up.

鈥業t was like returning from Mars鈥�

As a 12-year-old on the run from abuse at home in northern Virginia, Amaya was befriended by a girl on the street, but she quickly found herself in the grips of that girl鈥檚 trafficker.听

He sold her to another man, who took her to New York City. 鈥淚 remember the money exchanging hands,鈥� she says.听

She accrued a dozen convictions听during a decade under his total control. He didn鈥檛 allow her to read or write, and he constantly moved her around the city.

Eventually, she entered a drug treatment center to try to get off heroin. An alert intake worker helped her leave New York. She was the first person 鈥渢o treat me like a human being鈥� in a long time, Amaya recalls.

Too ashamed to tell anyone what had happened, she bounced around the country and then cobbled a life together back in Virginia.

鈥淚t was like returning from Mars. I had been surviving 鈥� I won鈥檛 say living 鈥� in a criminal underworld,鈥� she says. 鈥淥pening a bank account was like learning Japanese.鈥�

Once she had to tell a traffic court her story after a cop pulled her over and got confused by records showing various aliases the trafficker had given her.

Then, in 2012, something on the local TV news caught Amaya鈥檚 eye. It was about human traffickers, a term she hadn鈥檛 heard before. 鈥淭hey started talking about the recruitment techniques that they used, and that鈥檚 when it hit me all of a sudden.鈥� I realized, that鈥檚 exactly what happened to me.鈥�

She quickly transformed from someone who avoided even talking on the phone to someone who shared her story publicly, connected with other survivors, and began advocating for change.

By early 2013, she discovered that her trafficker had been extradited to Ohio around the time she left New York. He had gone to prison and later died.

Soon after she connected with the Legal Aid Society in New York, which she had heard could help听her vacate her criminal records. For nearly a year, lawyers from Cleary Gottlieb worked pro bono to document how she had been trafficked.

When she went to the courthouse with her request, she says, 鈥淚 saw the same walls for sure that I鈥檇 seen when I was a drug-addicted child in New York City and arrested. The same marble floors 鈥� it was a very surreal feeling.鈥�

This time, though, the judge commended her for her volunteer work and declared her records cleared.

鈥淚t took a while to sink in that I wasn鈥檛 a criminal,鈥� Amaya says, but when it did, the change was profound 鈥� 鈥渁 mental metamorphosis.鈥澨�

鈥業t can be incredibly healing鈥�

Survivors sometimes hesitate to get involved with the courts again, but when the collaboration works well, they often say that 鈥渢hey feel heard, listened to,鈥� says Kate Mogulescu, who helped Amaya when she ran the project at Legal Aid. Now Ms. Mogulescu operates a similar legal clinic at Brooklyn Law School, where she鈥檚 an assistant professor.听

When they are successful and a judge says, 鈥� 鈥業鈥檓 clearing this from your record鈥� 鈥� it [can be] incredibly healing,鈥� Mogulescu says.

More than 150 survivors have had more than 3,000 records cleared in New York State since the law took effect in 2010, she estimates.

The nonprofit group Polaris investigates hotline cases involving 10,000 trafficking victims in the United States each year, and that鈥檚 likely just the tip of the iceberg. There are no national statistics on how many have criminal records, but some advocates estimate it鈥檚 at least 75 percent.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Carolina Holderness says that when trafficking survivors want to vacate a conviction, it鈥檚 an opportunity to collaborate to right a wrong. Her office invites them to share their stories, and typically supports the motions before they even get before a judge.

In the 1970s and 鈥�80s, police and courts saw prostitution arrests as a way of cleaning up 鈥渧ice鈥� that brought down the quality of life in the city. They typically didn鈥檛 explore 鈥渨hat was causing this individual to be on that street corner,鈥� says Ms. Holderness, chief of the Human Trafficking Response Unit.听鈥淭hat鈥檚 a failure of the criminal justice system that we can remedy in some way by making sure the convictions that they got in that time period don鈥檛 follow them in the future.鈥�

This is especially important, advocates say, for a wide array of people who encounter bias and are less likely to be identified as victims 鈥� including men, people of color, immigrants, and transgender individuals.

By building trust among vulnerable populations, Holderness says it has also at times helped her put traffickers behind bars.

In the few states that don鈥檛 offer criminal-records relief laws, some attempts have run up against resistance from police or prosecutors, some of whom argue that survivors can approach the governor for a pardon.

Resources now scarce

Having laws on the books is one thing, but resources to implement criminal-records relief can be hard to come by.

In previous years, the US Department of Justice supported it through grants as part of its multimillion-dollar support for combating trafficking and aiding survivors. Under the Obama administration, its Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)听funded a project through the American Bar Association to train people around the country to give legal aid for such efforts.

But last spring, the Justice Department surprised grantees with a sudden policy shift, saying money from OVC cannot be used for direct legal services to vacate or expunge criminal records.

OVC has prioritized more immediate needs 鈥渟uch as shelter, medical care, mental health counseling, and basic legal assistance,鈥� a Justice spokeswoman noted in an email to the Monitor.

Survivors and advocates say the restriction is shortsighted. 鈥淎 little bit of investment in a lawyer鈥檚 time now means the person can have complete freedom and autonomy and achieve professional success,鈥� says Jean Bruggeman, executive director of Freedom Network USA.

Meanwhile, advocates like Amaya continue to push for state and federal legislation. In 2016, a bipartisan group in Congress, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) of New York, introduced the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which applied to both sex and labor trafficking. The bill did not get far, but a member of Senator Gillibrand's staff told the Monitor in an email that she is considering reintroducing it with some changes.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline can be reached at 1 (888) 373-7888 or by texting HELP to 233733 (BEFREE).