The Center for Violence Prevention in Mississippi reports during fiscal year 2020-2021 they responded to 165 human trafficking victims, 61 one of them were children. Sandy Middleton is executive director of the agency and has worked for years with trauma victims. She says human trafficking is a serious problem in the state. She talks about a center they operate for adult victims where they can stay for two years.
“All kinds of trauma-informed care, different kinds of therapy that are designed to help victims recover from trauma and a lot of case management. I mean victims come to us with a lot of needs,” Middleton said.
Among the needs are medical care, clothing and transitional housing. Middleton and officials are celebrating House Bill 1559. The law passed in 2020 authorizes the Mississippi Attorney General Office to create a program to meet the needs of human trafficking victims. It also helps 102 certified law enforcement investigators who volunteer, coordinate combating human trafficking statewide.
House Speaker Philip Gunn advocated for the law. Thursday, at the state capitol he says they are here to honor the investigators .
“It’s these men and women on the steps behind me who are willing to take that piece of legislation and put it into practice. They’re the one’s on the front lines. They’re the ones going into situations where they don’t have any idea what they’re going into,” Gunn said.
Selika Funchess knows the devastation human trafficking causes. She says in 2012, her daughter was drugged by a friend who called her to a Jackson hotel under the guise she was ill. Funchess says her daughter, then 19-years old was drugged and taken to Orlando, Florida, where she was forced into trafficking. Funchess says they managed to track her down in a month's time but her daughter wasn’t the same.
“The PTSD, the depression, the why me, ‘why did this happen to me,’ so there are a large range of emotions that she went through during that time,” Corley-Funchess said.
Funchess says she now works with human trafficking victims. She says it's difficult not only for the victims to overcome what they've been through, families are also devastated, struggling to cope and help their loved ones at the same time.
Law Enforcement investigators report conducting 16 operations over the past year, recovering 50 suspected victims.
