Image via WikipediaArticle published November 25, 2010 BY JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF COLUMBUS - Lawmakers soon may head for the door for the year, but one last act may be passage of a bill cracking down on modern-day slavery in Ohio.
The Senate Judiciary-Criminal Justice Committee is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill to create a stand-alone felony of human trafficking. A full Senate vote could come as soon as Wednesday, according to Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo), the bill's sponsor.
The bill would then head for the House, where Speaker Armond Budish (D., Beachwood) has said he will push for passage.
"I'm encouraged that my colleagues have been able to agree that this was an important bill for the state of Ohio and that it could not wait one more General Assembly … '' she said. "We are now going to be able to prosecute at the state and local levels and not leave it to the federal government to take the most severe cases.''
The bill would create a second-degree felony of "trafficking in persons" punishable by up to eight years in prison. It would apply to those who coerce or force people into labor, prostitution, or pornography.
Ohio has a human-trafficking specification which, when attached to a crime such as compelling prostitution, increases the punishment. But the state has been slow to follow 44 other states in enacting a stand-alone crime, even as Ohio has become a major destination point for those coerced into the sex trade."Who could possibly be against that legislation?'' Gov. Ted Strickland recently asked. "That's a bill that I think should garner strong bipartisan support.''
Despite having a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the chamber signed on as co-sponsors, the bill was stuck in committee for months, initially because of opposition from prosecutors who argued that a new stand-alone crime was unnecessary. Once prosecutors came on board, the measure was placed in limbo while the Republican-controlled Senate went on a five-month summer and election recess.
In the meantime, Ms. Fedor said work continued behind the scenes to work out concerns from various factions and that the committee's chairman, Sen. Tim Grendell (R., Chesterland), who sponsored the bill with her, plans to call for a committee vote Tuesday.
"It was more or less tweaking with the practitioners - law enforcement and prosecutors-to make sure we have the strong language necessary to have the effect that we want and so we will be able to successfully prosecute,'' Ms. Fedor said.
The Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission, led by co-chairmen Attorney General Richard Cordray and Ms. Fedor, reported this year that Toledo has the fourth-highest number of human-trafficking cases in the nation behind Miami, Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas in terms of raw numbers of arrests, investigations, and rescues of children involved in sex trafficking.
When adjusted for population, Toledo topped the list. The issue came to the forefront in Ohio in 2005 when a federal investigation into a Harrisburg, Pa., child prostitution ring revealed that nine area girls had been sold as slaves and at least 12 of the 31 people charged had ties to Toledo.
Source:
toledoblade.comtoledoblade.com -- The Blade ~ Toledo Ohio
Image via WikipediaArticle published November 25, 2010
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