A bill intending to expand the definition of human trafficking was introduced last Monday, Feb. 26, to the Kentucky House of Representatives. The bill, titled House Bill 3, would amend Kentucky Revised Statutes and allow the office of the Attorney General to deal with promotion of human trafficking more effectively.
The bill was introduced with six sponsors in the Chamber, all Republicans. The bill is theorized to be in response to growing concerns around human trafficking, specifically the promotion of human trafficking. One group discussing the issue, titled “The Kentucky Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force,” released a report on Feb. 19 of this year discussing the improvements made in the state while also giving recommendations on how to help with efforts regarding anti-human trafficking legislation.
According to the group’s news release regarding the report, the report itself discusses multiple types of trafficking in Kentucky and gives ten recommendations on how to deal with trafficking in the state. Some of the recommendations the report gave were regarding measures such as informing First Responders in Kentucky on how to properly deal with a trafficking-related case, improving the standards of care given to survivors of trafficking by service providers, and prioritizing language access in regard to survivors of trafficking, among others. The report was shared with top legislative leaders in the state, as well as the Governor and Attorney General.
The group is chaired by Asbury Political Science professor Dr. Glenn Harden, who attended LEX18 News to discuss the report, which he co-authored. “We can have a baseline, we can kind of see how well we’re doing, what maybe needs to be improved,” Harden said. “The fundamental goal here is to create a better Commonwealth, to support survivors, to protect people.”
Deanna Lynn, a victim of trafficking and the Executive Director of “Refuge For Women Kentucky,” which is another group focused on helping victims of trafficking, also gave comments to LEX18 regarding efforts to combat trafficking. “We have the apartments fully furnished so that they feel at home right when they move in,” Lynn told LEX18, “Here, I had a lot of people who stepped into my pain and a lot of people who fought for my life when I didn’t think my life was worth living.”
The bill entered the Committee on Committees the same day it was introduced into the legislature. If passed, it would go to the Kentucky Senate to be voted on, and if passed there, it would go to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear for signing. If passed by the Governor, the bill would amend Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 529.110 to expand the definition regarding promotion of human trafficking, as well as making the promotion of human trafficking a Class D felony, which would mean one to five years in jail. If the victim is under 18, it would be considered a Class C felony worthy of five to ten years in prison. The bill would also allow the Attorney General, or a designee chosen by the Attorney General, to establish a working group to deal with promoters of trafficking. The group could be made up of associations within the state regarding law enforcement, as well as Federal Agencies that operate in Kentucky, according to the bill itself.