January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and combating the problem is especially important in Nevada, which is home to the largest commercial sex trade per capita in the country.
More than 5,000 people, mostly women and girls, are sold for sex in Nevada each month, according to a 2019 study from Creighton University.
Melissa Holland, executive director and a cofounder at Awaken, a Reno-based nonprofit that helps survivors of sex trafficking get their lives back, said the traffickers target local teenagers.
"Over the last four years," she said, "Awaken has seen victims come out of every single high school in Reno-Sparks and most of the middle schools."
All sex trafficking is illegal, online or otherwise, in Clark and Washoe counties, which include Las Vegas and Reno. But solicitation of an adult for sex is only a misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 fine or up to six months in jail. Brothels are legal in certain parts of 10 other Nevada counties.
Holland said she'd like to see the sex trade banned in every county - or at least, to have the penalty raised to what's known as a gross misdemeanor.
"We have a sex tourism community here, which unfortunately means this is where traffickers come to groom girls and to traffic them," she said. "Traffickers want to come to Nevada because the laws have done half the work for them, in terms of desensitizing people to prostitution."
Awaken and other groups like it offer transitional housing, a drop-in center and counseling, and make presentations at local schools. The Nevada Attorney General's website also has links to multiple agencies and programs designed to help victims.
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Groups advocating for people detained in immigration facilities are calling for the reinstatement of a program which allowed 500 free minutes of phone calls per month.
In recent weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement cut off the free domestic and international calls, telling advocates pandemic-era funding has run out.
Rosa Santana, interim co-executive director of the Envision Freedom Fund, said families of the detainees often struggle to afford the calls, which can cost up to $3 for 15 minutes.
"Usually the person who is in detention is the breadwinner and now families have to be able to figure out how they could bring food and everything that the breadwinner used to bring, pay rent," Santana pointed out. "And on top of that now, it's having to pay for phone calls."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment. People in at least 16 ICE detention centers across the country have reported losing access to the free calls, including three sites in California: Golden State Annex, Mesa Verde Processing Center and Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Karim Golding, organizer for the nonprofit Freedom to Thrive, said the phone calls are a lifeline for people in detention; a connection to family that keeps their spirits up. In addition, human rights groups worry it could make it harder to monitor conditions on the inside.
"Absent the phones, how would we know that rights are being violated?" Golding asked. "How would we know if nobody has the ability to communicate?"
People in detention do still have access to work programs where they can earn about $1 for eight hours of work to spend on calls or items at the commissary.
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A controversial new law is set to take effect next week, requiring Hoosiers to upload sensitive documents, including driver's licenses and Social Security numbers, to access adult content online. The measure aims to prevent minors from viewing explicit materials, but it has sparked significant concerns.
Chris Daley, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana, argues the law infringes on constitutional rights by excessively burdening access for Hoosiers.
"You can't do that in a way that impermissibly burdens an adult's access to the same material. And the state can't use a means to limit a minor's access to adult material if there's a less burdensome means available to do so," Daley said.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita supports the law, citing the need to protect children from the psychological impacts of explicit material.
Opponents question the effectiveness of the measure, pointing out that minors could still access adult content through unregulated sites or by using VPNs.
The law also raises concerns about potential censorship of sex education and LGBTQ+ content. Sen. Liz Brown, D-Fort Wayne, chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee when the law made its way through the Statehouse in the 2024 session. She suggests porn sites find it easier to adapt than comply - recently cutting its feed in states such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Utah.
"This isn't about eliminating pornography from the state of Indiana - although I would be OK with this," Brown said. "Pornhub -- and I can't speak for that business -- but they decided that their business model was easier, which would indicate to me that they knew at the time they were operating that they were having minors access their material."
Pornhub and other operators are seeking to block the law, arguing it impinges on adults' free speech and other constitutional rights.
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A new bill that takes effect next Monday will allow incarcerated Mississippians to request an absentee ballot in time for the presidential election on November 5.
House Bill 1406 will impact incarcerated Mississippians who have not been convicted of any of the 23 disenfranchisement crimes to be eligible to participate in the electoral process.
Paloma Wu, deputy director of impact litigation at the Mississippi Center for Justice, said they want all eligible Mississippians to vote because it's better for democracy. She added the Magnolia State has a limited excuse-only absentee ballot, meaning people can vote absentee, but only in specific circumstances.
"Many people who are held in jail and imprisoned in Mississippi are actually eligible to vote. And for one large group of those people, they had no excuse, which would have applied to them," she said.
Wu pointed out that Mississippi has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation, with more than 1,000 people per 100,000 residents behind bars.
Wu noted those who are convicted of one of 23 disenfranchising crimes in a Mississippi court are automatically banned from voting for life. She added the history behind the disfranchising law was to prevent people of color from voting.
"Our list of disenfranchising crimes was created to target primarily descendants of recently enslaved people back in 1890," she explained.
Wu pointed out that her organization, along with other advocacy groups, Mississippi Votes, Black Voters Matter, and Mississippi Center for Re-Entry, collaborated with the state throughout the 2024 legislative session to get House Bill 1406 passed.
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