With the passage of the True Freedom Act in March this year, survivors of human trafficking now have the opportunity to vacate a wide range of convictions related to their trafficking ordeals.
The True Freedom Act of 2020 affords human trafficking survivors the opportunity for a real chance to rebuild their lives, free from convictions for crimes that were directly related to the sexual violence they experienced as victims of human trafficking. Previous laws permitted a survivor of human trafficking to vacate a conviction for prostitution when the underlying activity was caused by trafficking, but failed to include many other crimes that are related to trafficking, such as loitering, indecent exposure, and drug possession. With such convictions for minor crimes related to human trafficking remaining on these survivors' records, they were never truly free and never given the chance to heal from this horrific crime.
MCASA's Executive Director, Lisae C. Jorda, spoke with WDVM for a segment on the True Freedom Act of 2020. View the segment here.
