A group of former pimps met with anti-prostitution activists to help them combat the huge sex trafficking industry.
“How would you feel if this was your daughter or sister?” asked former pimp Louis Scott at the San Quentin forum. “What would you do if they were forced into it?”
It is a crime that most people think won’t affect them, but it’s happening here in the United States, and it’s not limited to people from the ghetto, said pediatric trauma nurse Jessica Munoz.
“Being young and vulnerable is all it takes to get caught up in the life (sex trafficking),” said Munoz of the non-profit organization Hoola Na Pua, which means: “New Life for Our Children.”
San Quentin community volunteer Kathleen Jackson helped set up the event after being asked to interview pimps on their perspective on how to stop trafficking. “I didn’t know any pimps. I had to find some,” said Jackson.
Inmates Scott, Harry Smith and others answered the call.
Inmate Miguel Sifuentes helped facilitate the forum called STEP (Sex Trafficking Exploitation Prevention).
Scott said his mother was a prostitute and his father her pimp. Many of his 26 brothers and sisters followed suit. He credits his children not following in his footsteps to teaching them better.
Smith said he went from being an innocent middle-class Southern boy and walk-on basketball player for San Francisco State University to becoming a pimp. “A woman recruited me. I thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend. Then my whole focus changed from trying to get in the NBA to getting money. This lifestyle rapes all parties of their innocence.”
Inmate Donald Ray Walker Jr. took responsibility for being a customer. “I was in the U.S. Navy. I went to all these countries and engaged. The military is a huge enabler of the sex trafficking,” said Walker.
“Hearing your story gives me a different perspective. It shows what change looks like. People are people,” said Erica Beedle.
The event started with a public service announcement created by the San Quentin Prison Report. “Speak up and speak out so we can help you escape,” Scott said from the screen to girls caught up in prostitution.
Scott warned pimps the penalty is a mandatory minimum of 15 years to life and being registered sex offender. Scott received 199 years for pimping and pandering.
Betty Ann Boeving from the Bay Area Anti-Traffic Coalition plans to use STEP public service announcements at the Super Bowl to bring awareness. “People think traffic only has to do with freeways,” said Boeving.
Boeving said she and 12 friends started the Freedom Summit.
In May, they held it in Levi Stadium, and Condoleezza Rice attended. Ken Peterson and Allan Priest of 3 Strands Global want to get the PSAs played in schools also.
(3strandsglobal.com) The group heard ways pimps lure girls into the life. “We prey upon those with low self-esteem, who don’t have a crowd around them – the vulnerable. Like a wolf pack, you seek out the weak,” said Scott.
Sex trafficking survivor Marya Edgar said that, although raised in a strict Christian home, a prostitute lured her into a pimp’s hands. He trafficked her to Nevada and beat her every time she tried to leave. The college student escaped when the pimp went to prison on another matter.
“It is vital that education gets out there. I didn’t know that there were people out there looking to help me,” said Edgar. “I stayed because I was being beaten.” “Remember the hotline, because it is a great resource. They have a texting and number to call.
Eighty-two percent didn’t know who to call to get out. Many said, ‘I wouldn’t run to the police; I run from them,’” said Boeving. The groups came up with several possible solutions. “Prostitutes are locked up for doing something that they are forced to do. They are survivors, not criminals,” said Scott.
Prostitutes aren’t let off the hook by the police because it is believed they will run straight back to their pimps, explained Munoz.
There is talk about ways to process them through the system and out of the life. Munoz has done a TED talk on sex trafficking. She and coboard member Aaron Schnobrich flew in from Hawaii for the July 22 forum.
Smith said, “The solution is to keep showing unconditional love, because sometimes kids are going to run and look for the love they are not getting in the home.”
Edgar said, “I suggest hotels have a card reader. Slide the ID to make sure it is valid so we can’t check in with fake IDs. That can stop a lot of under-age people and people with incorrect information from checking in.”
Jason Jones suggested, “Start in fifth grade, when they teach ’em sex education, teach them about sex trafficking. Pimps think the younger I get them the easy it is to mold them. So we have to think the same,” said Jones.
The inmates produced a flyer with questions designed to awaken girls to the brainwashing. It will include the number to the national sex trafficking help hot line.
“It’s beautiful to see people from other walks of life that didn’t experience this growing up but are passionate about changing it,” said Jones.
