ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Law enforcement agencies are reassessing traffic-stop policies amid concerns from racial-justice advocates.

In Minnesota, a new project is focusing research and financial support for these changes, to help people affected by these laws.

Brooklyn Center leaders recently noted their reform plans include ending arrests for non-moving traffic violations. Elsewhere, the Ramsey County Attorney said last month his office would no longer prosecute cases stemming solely from traffic stops that are not a threat to public safety.

Eric Jolly, president and CEO of the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, said they are getting behind the county's plan with a new fund.

"When people's safety is not at stake, then there's no reason to create a system that causes that anxiety and doesn't reduce the safety concerns," Jolly asserted.

The fund will help determine if the changes are effective in avoiding deadly encounters, and it provides aid to low-income drivers in need of minor repairs that could lead to traffic stops, like a broken tail light.

The Stanford Open Policing Project showed in cities like St. Paul, police stop Black drivers at higher rates than whites. Some law-enforcement associations argued the rule changes will add to public safety problems, not decrease them.

But reform advocates contended longstanding policies about traffic stops rarely help law enforcement build a case. Instead, they said the policies have eroded trust between police and communities of color.

Jolly emphasized it is time to change that dynamic.

"Each time, the pull-over gets more and more anxiety provoking," Jolly observed. "And to stop that means that the next pull-over will have meaning and value."

Ramsey County's plan has the backing of local police leaders, including St. Paul's police chief. Jolly added the approach allows officers to better focus on more pressing matters.

"This is a critical issue as well in greater Minnesota," Jolly remarked. "The rest of Minnesota has to worry about, 'What are the availabilities of the sheriffs? How can we free up their time?'"

The fund will also help establish a way for drivers to be notified of a minor violation without being pulled over. Supporters hope the effort inspires other agencies to consider changes.

Critics of Gov. Pete Ricketts' call for the Nebraska Legislature to fund a new prison argue the money would be better invested in programs with proven track records for reducing crime and preventing people from entering the criminal-justice system.

Fran Kaye, a retired professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a 25-year prison volunteer, said mental-health programs, addiction treatment and job-training programs can reduce crime and make communities safer.

"Prisons are really kind of an awful idea, when you come to think about it," Kaye remarked. "I mean, you don't want to be in a position where you're punishing people after they've done something wrong. You don't want them to do wrong in the first place."

Supporters say the proposed 1,500-bed prison, listed as a $240 million line item in an appropriations bill, will create jobs and is necessary to address the state's overcrowded corrections population.

Kaye cites research showing Nebraska can end overcrowding by limiting the use of stacked sentencing and getting more people back into communities through diversion programs and parole.

She added Nebraska is not a wealthy state, and only developers will benefit if lawmakers approve a project with a quarter-billion-dollar price tag.

"You get as much money for building a preschool as you do for building a prison," Kaye pointed out. "Why don't we build more treatment centers? You get as much money for building a treatment center as you do for a prison. Why don't we build more job-training centers?"

Pointing to the state's high recidivism rate, Kaye said Nebraska has done a poor job helping people who have served time heal and re-enter society as contributing community members. She believes building another facility will not make those communities safer, in part because prisons create an environment known to lead to violent behavior.

"Fear, shame, isolation, exposure to violence, powerlessness," Kaye outlined. "What do prisons create? Why in the world would we spend all that money on an institution that is best at creating violence, and is lousy at healing?"

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.

Survivors of human trafficking in Indiana are required to provide testimony in person during trials, but a new bill would allow young survivors to submit pre-recorded video statements. The proposal would apply to survivors who were 14 or younger at the time of their assault, as long as they're still a minor during the trial.

Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, chair of the Indiana House Courts and Criminal Code Committee, said she wrote the bill after talking with a parent in her district.

"His daughter was victimized when she was 14 and then was forced to testify in court when she was 15," McNamara recounted. "So hopefully this would be an opportunity for kids not to have to relive this."

Per the National Human Trafficking Hotline, there were 140 reported cases of trafficking in Indiana in 2020, up from 98 in 2017. McNamara said while her bill is aimed at survivors of human trafficking, it also would cover young survivors of any violent crime.

McNamara's bill includes other provisions which she pointed out will streamline the prosecution of traffickers and increase penalties for those who pay for sexual acts from minors. She added many of those measures were designed to target the organizations behind the crime.

"It's not just one individual," McNamara explained. "It's often a very complex web of groups of people, multi-state groups, that serve as human-trafficking rings."

The proposal also will require local agencies to report human trafficking investigations to the Indiana Attorney General's office within thirty days. It will be before the Courts and Criminal Code Committee for consideration Wednesday.

Human trafficking can be reported to the National Human Trafficking hotline via the organization's website or by phone: 1-888-373-7888.