The Pre-Law Program director Karen Struening, hosted a Panel on Human Trafficking Intervention Courts on Wednesday, Oct. 21at the NAC (North Academic Complex) Ballroom. Moderator Samantha Majic, Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of "Sex Work Politics: From Protest to Service Provision" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), and the co-editor (with Carisa Showden) of "Negotiating Sex Work: Unintended Consequences of Policy and Activism"(University of Minnesota Press, 2014) introduced Red Umbrella Project, an organization comprised of former prostitutes advocating for the rights of sex workers. This organization provides the following workshops to its members: media training, memoir writing, and story-telling. Their representatives, Audacia Ray, and Jenna Torres talked to the audience about a key question: Are sex workers criminals or victims?

With that in mind, Audacia Ray, founder and director of Red Umbrella Project, spoke about the treatment sex workers encounter in the Brooklyn and Queens Human Trafficking Intervention Courts through a 2014 research study the organization conducted. In September 2013, New York State launched 11 HTICs, charged with handling prostitution-related misdemeanors. According to the study, the courts’ structure encourages defendants to accept the offer of mandated therapy sessions as an alternative to incarceration. For example, 94% of defendants in Queens and 97 percent in Brooklyn pursued a contemplation of dismissal (ACD), while a small number of defendants pursued other options like pleading to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct, pleading guilty, rejecting the offer of services, or taking the case to trial. Furthermore, Brooklyn HTIC disproportionately processed 69% of black women through its system and charged 94% of them for loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution. Additionally, Ms. Ray stated that the Queens court differs from the Brooklyn court in that the majority of arrests are intended to rescue sex workers rather than harass them. Finally, she declared that Red Umbrella Project supports the decriminalization of prostitution.

The second Red Umbrella Project representative, Jenna Torres, a community organizer for the organization, talked about her experience as a sex worker. She organizes people affected and involved in the sex industry. Ms. Torres states that on August 2013, the legal system deprived her of pursuing higher education when she was arrested for prostitution. She says the court “stopped her from going to school.” Further, the system does not understand the reason why women engage in the sex trade according to Ms. Torres. In her case, she entered the sex industry for financial stability, shelter, and an obligation to provide for her three children. She goes on to say that the HTIC forced her to attend useless therapy sessions which did not help. In essence, the Court does not invest in the things women can use to keep themselves out of prisons such as non-judgmental healthcare or skills to utilize in the workforce. Ms. Torres further states that sex workers ask for trials and are denied such recourse because the court sides with police officers for the most part. Lastly, she wanted to clarify a misconception that sex workers are victims of human trafficking and she did so with her statement to police officers by saying that capitalism was her trafficker. This shows the external forces which drove her to sell her body for money in her estimation.

Overall, Red Umbrella Project wants to change the narrative about sex workers. They believe the United States Congress selectively chooses which stories to present to the public, thus framing a distinctive narrative which negatively portrays women in the sex industry as criminals, and falsely views them as victims of human trafficking.