Support the Florida Safe Harbor Act

Modeled, at least in substance if not in form, after the recently enacted New York "Safe Harbor Act," the proposed new statutory scheme seeks to address the problem of commercial child sexual exploitation in an enlightened and hopefully more constructive way than does the traditional approach. Instead of treating children as perpetrators of the crime of prostitution, notwithstanding the fact that they are, under Florida law, incapable of consent, the proposal would recognize these children as victims. They truly are special victims, without caring adults and preyed on by traffickers and buyers. Once the proposed Florida Safe Harbor Act becomes law, these children would be removed from the juvenile justice system and placed in the custody of the Department of Child and Family Services through dependency proceedings.

The Florida Safe Harbor Act would accomplish this goal by both amending existing statutes and adding new statutes. First, various provisions of Chapter 39 would be amended to specifically provide for children who are victims of sexual exploitation and a new Safe Harbor statute would be enacted. Some new provisions are modeled after existing laws such as those addressing the problem of substance abuse. More particularly, the significant proposed changes to Chapter 39 are outlined below:

• The provision of specific services for sexually exploited children is adopted as a Chapter purpose in § 39.001.

• Definitions are amended in § 39.01(15)(f) to include sexually exploited child as a "child found to be dependent" and § 39.01(67)(g) to further refine the current definition of sexually exploited child.

• Custody, shelter and disposition procedures are amended to provide for the sheltering of sexually exploited children in specifically designed short and long term Safe Houses in § 39.401(2)(b), § 39.402(2),(8)(a), (8)(d)(2) and § 39.521(1)(f)(3)(c), (3)(d).

• A new section is proposed detailing the method of assessment, reporting and funding detail for Safe Houses in § 39.524.

Second, new provisions would be added to Chapter 409, Social Welfare, creating Safe Houses for such victims. These new provisions are modeled after existing statutes dealing with residential group care services for children with extraordinary needs. Proposed § 409.1678, covers this portion and more specifically provides:

• Contracting authority of the Department of Children and Family Services for the creation of short and long term Safe Houses.

• Definitions of Short Term and Long Term Safe Houses for sexually exploited children.

• Requirements for providing Short Term Safe Houses in each district and at least one Long Term Safe House state wide, dependent on funding availability.

Finally, the proposed legislation would amend the prostitution statute, § 796.07 to no longer apply to children under the age of 16. Moreover, with regard to 16 and 17 year olds, a rebuttable presumption that they should be placed in dependency rather than delinquency, would be created in § 985.145 and § 985.15.

For more information and to find out how you can help contact:

Trudy Novicki

Executive Director

Kristi House

tnovicki@kristihouse.org

(305) 547-6836