The failure of the task force to form means it also blew a Dec. 31, 2010, deadline to outline and report the extent of the human trafficking problem among sex workers in the state, where indoor prostitution was banned just two years ago.
The law addresses all forced labor, including the sex trade.
Compliance is also spotty with another requirement of the 2009 law: that police departments must inform the governor, General Assembly and attorney general of the number of people arrested, prosecuted and fined for human trafficking.
A review of reports submitted to Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin, who prosecutes all state human trafficking cases, showed data missing from 12 communities, including the cities of Providence, Woonsocket and Pawtucket.
Advocates say the scope of the problem has been difficult to track. The Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking says it has identified 22 trafficking victims in the past two years. The coalition is a network of victim service and advocacy groups that has used grant money to raise awareness and train law enforcement.
State Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, who sponsored the human trafficking measure, said the Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking serves the function of the task force and is a suitable substitute.
"Frequently there are commissions and committees that are set up and they don't meet. This is not an abnormality. The real reason (the task force didn't form) was that there was a private group providing the function," said Perry.
Coalition co-chairwoman Tammy Dudman said the group has also worked with performers in the state's 13 strip clubs, including some who say they are forced to have sex with customers or pay the house to avoid doing that.
There are about 30 illegal brothels statewide employing about 10 women each who see 10 to 20 male customers daily, Dudman said.
The Washington, D.C.-based Polaris Project, which runs a human trafficking resource center, said it got 21 calls from Rhode Island last year and three during the first three months of 2011. Two 2010 calls concerned tips about possible cases, the rest dealt with training, referrals or general information.
Two people have been prosecuted under the 2009 law and are serving prison sentences, said Kilmartin spokeswoman Amy Kempe. New York residents Andy Fakhoury and Joseph Defeis pleaded no contest to charges they were operating a prostitution ring from a home in Providence, and forcing the women, including a 16-year-old girl, into the sex trade.
A third man, Brandon Frails, 29, was charged in an unrelated case with three counts of human trafficking in October. Pawtucket police allege he was prostituting a 17-year-old girl who had run away from a group home.
"I certainly believe there is a lot of victimization going on in Rhode Island and no one is doing anything about it or very little is being done about it," said Donna Hughes, a women's studies professor at the University of Rhode Island, who advocated for the legislation and was named to the task force.
Dudman said she became concerned as soon as she read the statute that created the task force.
"There is absolutely no (chair person)," recalled Dudman. "How is this supposed to happen?"
The task force has 16 appointees, three each appointed by the governor, House speaker and the Senate president. The remaining slots are assigned by law to representatives from several law enforcement agencies, and the offices of the public defender and attorney general.
Among the appointees is the director of the Commission on Women, which lost its funding under former Gov. Donald Carcieri and no longer exists. Another goes to the director of the Municipal Police Training Academy. Chief Anthony Silva said The AP's inquiry was the first he had heard about this appointment to the board. Another appointee, William Shuey, executive director of the International Institute of Rhode Island, who was named to the task force by Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, said he did not know about his appointment. The institute provides services to immigrants and refugees.
"I can't think of anyone who has created a task force with legislation and gone two years without a meeting," said Sarah Jakiel, associate director of the Polaris Project.
There are 42 task forces set up nationally through the U.S. Department of Justice to address human trafficking, Jakiel said. Some groups received $450,000 to $500,000 each in federal funding with money being split among law enforcement and nonprofit groups that help victims, she said. Some of the task forces have lost their funding, but still continue to meet, Jakiel said. There has never been funding for the Rhode Island task force.
Jakiel said task forces are valuable because they push against human trafficking with law enforcement and the public, which does not understand the issue.
Victims of human trafficking "are losing a lot," she said.
The 2009 Rhode Island law increased the maximum penalties for sex trafficking of minors to 40 years in prison, up from 30 years if the victim was 17 years old.
At about the same time, the state became the last in the country to ban indoor prostitution, setting criminal misdemeanor penalties for prostitutes, johns, pimps and those who knowingly allow prostitution to take place on their property.
Perry, Kilmartin and Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts are currently featured on billboards on Rhode Island Public Transit Authority buses as part of a public awareness campaign aimed at ending the demand for prostitution. The campaign is sponsored by the Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking.
The coalition also conducted training sessions with law enforcement to educate them about the new law and human trafficking, Dudman said. She said she's hoping Kilmartin, who took office in January, will take the lead and bring the task force together so law enforcement, advocates and others can better collaborate on the issue.
Former state Rep. Joanne M. Giannini, D-Providence, who sponsored the human trafficking and indoor prostitution bills, said she's disappointed the task force hasn't met.
"Trafficking of women, children and of young boys will continue and will be more prevalent if it's not monitored and if the enforcement of the law is not done," she said. "If we're not getting the stats, how do we know?"
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