The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Christina LaPointe Jackson is in the process of getting her criminal record expunged for crimes she committed while she was a victim of human trafficking and she’s hoping a new law will help speed up the process.
She had been trafficked by seven different people and has been arrested more than 30 times for various offenses, including drugs and theft. One of her traffickers held her hostage in his attic for a couple of weeks and would take her out to prostitute on the streets.
“He would watch me from the corner,” she said. “Any person’s car I got into he would follow me in his car. He was never without me.”
Jackson wants to work with teenagers, but that’s not possible because of her record. And it can be extremely difficult to find a place to live.
“You can’t work around children or teenagers having such a beautiful background,” she said. “Our past follows us. … Housing is a big no. I don’t think any application I’ve put in has ever passed.”
But the Akron resident is feeling more optimistic now that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed a bill into law that allows human trafficking survivors to expunge certain criminal records.
“It means a lot to me as far as my next steps forward, what I can do with my life and where I can go for my career,” Jackson said.
State Sen. Stephanie Kunze, R-Dublin, introduced Senate Bill 214 earlier this year which allows human trafficking survivors to apply for expungement of conviction records for a misdemeanor, fourth-degree felony or fifth-degree felony they committed while being trafficked. Expungement is not automatic and people must go through a hearing process.
Survivors are sometimes forced to commit crimes like theft, drug trafficking, shoplifting, and credit card theft — which can stick with them years after being trafficked.
Before S.B. 214 passed, human trafficking survivors could only have their records expunged for convicted crimes of soliciting, loitering and prostitution.
The Human Trafficking Hotlinehas received 11,224 signals and identified 3,102 cases of human trafficking in Ohio since 2007.
This new law is important because of the collateral consequences of being a human trafficking victim, said Tracy McGinley, who helped develop the Bowling Green State University Labor Trafficking Education and Research Initiative.
“When we start to look at human trafficking and all of these crimes that get associated with that person being a victim, and if they have other charges on their record that might impede them from getting jobs or even getting grants to go to school, depending on what the charges are, or even employment, and so we don’t want to have those collateral consequences where they can’t find housing and employment,” she said.
Another part of control with trafficking is the psychological threat of basic physiological needs, said Lara Wilken, who also helped come up with the BGSU Labor Trafficking Education and Research Initiative.
“If these individuals are not able to advocate or able to be employed, their basic physiological needs — like shelter, food, safety, all of those things — traffickers can use those opportunities to exploit them, and they may not feel they have anywhere else to go,” she said. “The ability to have the expungement of their record, so that they can go out and get an education and get a job and be able to provide for themselves is making it much harder for traffickers to re-exploit them again.”
Annette Mango
Back in 2017, Annette Mango got her record expunged for crimes she committed as a human trafficking victim and it has turned her life around.
“It’s not only open doors for me, I feel free,” Mango said. “I feel safe. … I can walk in any place now and with my head up high, and don’t have to worry about (having a record).”
Mango, of Cleveland, was an addict which led to her becoming homeless and ultimately becoming a victim of human trafficking when she was 35. She ended up being trafficked by drug dealers and other addicts.
The last time she was arrested, a probation officer asked if she wanted to join the human trafficking drug court.
“That’s what saved me,” she said, remembering she was about 50 at that time. She’s now 59.
Since getting her record expunged, she has gone on to get her GED.
“That was one of the best feelings, one of the best things I ever did,” she said. “I took my son and my father with me to get my diploma. I have never felt something so empowering.”
Mango is glad to see S.B. 214 signed into law.
“It’s giving us a voice,” she said. “It gives us strength to take our lives back.”
