PENNSYLVANIA ACTION ALERTPennsylvania Senate Passes Human Trafficking Resolution SR 253, sponsored by Senator Greenleaf and HR 630, sponsored by Representative True will change how Pennsylvania addresses and responds to human trafficking! The Resolutions will establish an advisory committee to study and collect critical information about human trafficking within Pennsylvania and recommend policies to help bring traffickers to justice and provide needed assistance to victims. Establishing a centralized venue such as this will strengthen coordination between law enforcement, victim service providers and the public to help end human trafficking in the state. Pennsylvania plays host to both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Sex trafficking occurs in pimp-controlled street prostitution, commercial-front massage parlors, closed-network residential brothels, and increasingly, victims are advertised on internet sites like Craigslist. Pennsylvania is also a “pass through” state for sex trafficking, as our many interstate highways connect major trafficking hotspots in Ohio and New York, and New Jersey to Washington DC, Georgia and Florida. Truck stops, especially those along the “Miracle Mile”, are well known for sex trafficking. Victims of labor trafficking are typically found in domestic servitude, agriculture, nail salons, and even in traveling sales crews selling candy or magazine subscriptions. Victims of human trafficking face a horrific life in which they are threatened, beaten, raped, starved, locked up, or psychologically tortured. Take ActionSR253 will go a long way to helping the state create a comprehensive approach to fighting human trafficking and toward assisting victims. However, the resolution gives the advisory committee two years to provide a plan for their approach and in the meantime, countless victims are suffering daily in Pennsylvania without knowing where to turn for help. Thankfully, there is another bill pending that will provide help to human trafficking victims. SB1227, now under consideration in the Senate Labor and Industry Committee will require that the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline (1-888-3737-888) be posted in key locations to provide a bridge to help and assistance for community members, victims, tipsters and law enforcement. Please Take Action on This Important Bill. Please take a moment to contact Senator Greenleaf and thank him for his leadership on SR 253, the human trafficking resolution. You can reach Senator Greenleaf by email here, or call him at: (717) 787-6599 or at (800)-848-5013. Additional Information:
See Senator Greenleaf's interview on human trafficking
Senator Greenleaf's press release on the passage of SR253 If you should have any questions or have heard back from your legislators about cosponsoring this bill, please email Julie Janovsky at
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Additional Information and Talking Points
Current State Law: In 2006 the Pennsylvania legislature made human trafficking a second degree felony, unless the perpetrator injures the victim or the victim is under 18, in which case it is a first degree felony. In addition, traffickers face forfeiture of any assets associated with the crime – potentially providing the state with tens of thousands of dollars. However, the Pennsylvania Human Trafficking Law has not been utilized as of yet for a number of reasons, including: - lack of knowledge by the public and victims on how to identify the crime of human trafficking, and where to turn once they have;
- a common misconception that only the federal government can take effective action in cases of human trafficking, when in truth, more often it is local and state law enforcement and victim service providers who come into direct contact with it;
- victims of trafficking are usually kept isolated from society and unable to ask for help without risking severe repercussions from traffickers;
- victims are often misunderstood to be prostitutes who choose to be “in the life” or as “illegals” whom society may disregard;
- a lack of coordination between law enforcement, prosecutors, victim service providers and the public on human trafficking cases; a lack of training, action plans, and victim resources; and no centralized venue to convey information on responding to the crime of human trafficking.
***Pennsylvania Human Trafficking in the News***
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