LAS VEGAS - January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month and the problem is particularly severe in Nevada. Statistics show the Silver State is one of the the 10 worst for human trafficking, with hundreds of calls to the national hotline each year.

Experts blame it on the state's multi-billion-dollar sex trade, which in some cases draws children into prostitution.

Alexis Kennedy, an associate professor in UNLV's Department of Criminal Justice, says Nevada needs to help victims get counseling and transitional housing, then connect them with adult mentors even after they age out of the system.

"You can't live in the traumatic circumstance of being a trafficking victim and then, the second you turn 18, you're a healthy, functioning adult," says Kennedy. So, to then say, 'All right, you're 18 go get a straight job, stay out of trouble, don't do anything illegal;' they don't have the skills they need, they don't have the emotional support that they need."

This week, UNLV starts a three-year, $600,000 research project in which Kennedy interviews trafficking victims ages 18 to 24. The goal is to find out where the system could have done a better job helping them escape their exploitation.

She adds that police, schools, families and child protective services are working together to find at-risk kids before their lives take a dangerous turn.

"Girls we arrest, the 150-200 a year here in Las Vegas, about 80 percent of them are local," says Kennedy. "So if you have a fight with mom and dad and run away, you end up on the Strip. So, we have to do that prevention/inoculation/identification better."

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline has received more than 96,000 calls and identified more than 40,000 victims since its inception nine years ago. The number is 1-888-373-7888, or on a cell phone, text "HELP" to "BeFree."


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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohioans across religious traditions have come together as one voice this week to speak out against capital punishment.

Dozens of faith communities participated in vigils, prayer services and virtual conversations during Death Penalty Abolition Week, which comes to a close Sunday with a virtual worship service, entitled, "Restorative Love, Redemptive Grace."

Rev. Sharon Risher, a death penalty abolitionist, will share the story of her path to forgiveness after her mother was among nine people gunned down in the 2015 Charleston, S.C., church shooting.

"That horrific event that killed my mother made me really delve into my soul," Risher recounted. "And I came out understanding that I could not condone the death penalty. Because I understand with my faith that God is restorative and redemptive."

There is no cost to attend Sunday's virtual service. It will also feature Christian author and activist Shane Claiborne.

Risher explained her faith helped turn her trauma into activism and eventually forgive the shooter, who is currently awaiting execution at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

"People of faith can sometimes go through the most horrific things," Risher noted. "But because of their faith, they could get to a point of forgiveness, which then leads to healing."

Oct. 19 marks 40 years since Ohio enacted its current death-penalty statute.

Rev. Jack Sullivan, Jr., executive director of the Ohio Council of Churches, said there is strong bipartisan support behind Senate Bill 103 and House Bill 183, which would abolish it.

"No one's rejecting accountability as being an important component in dealing with people who have hurt us or angered us the most," Sullivan pointed out. "But the sponsored homicide of those people is immoral, and it's illogical, and it's just wrong."

Sullivan, whose sister was murdered, thinks victims' families would be better served by redirecting money used for capital cases toward supportive services to help with their healing.

"Executions do not assist in dealing with grief," Sullivan asserted. "They do not give us wholeness or closure. They just continue the cycle of death. And co-victims need more than that. They need the state to invest in their wellbeing and their movement forward, and their restoration."

RALEIGH, N.C. - An online conversation this Sunday will focus on faith with people affected by capital punishment.

Panelists will include George Wilkerson, now living on North Carolina's death row; Andre Smith, who teaches Buddhism to men in prison and lost his son to homicide; and the Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost her mother and two cousins in the shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.

Noel Nickle, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the state hasn't executed anyone since 2006, but there is no official moratorium on executions.

"And we also look to not just the possibility of executions, but the fact that people are still sentenced to death in our state," she said. "We have a couple of pending capital trials still for 2021."

She also pointed to the stark racial disparity in capital punishment sentencing, citing a study of death penalty trials in North Carolina from 1990 to 2010 that found racial bias tainted sentencing in trials with all-white juries.

Panelist George Wilkerson, who has spent the past 15 years on death row, said he's witnessed others in prison undergo profound transformations, especially when they're guided by their faith.

"And from my personal experience, I've seen it - I've seen it around me," he said. "I see that people can change, that people are redeemable. No matter what they've done."

Jennifer Copeland, executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches said Christians working toward a more just society believe there's a moral imperative for the criminal justice system to serve as an agent of rehabilitation, rather than a vehicle for oppression.

"The reason we're doing this Death Penalty Abolition Sabbath - and it's meant for all faith communities to participate, of course - is to raise awareness about the reality that the death penalty is still on the books in North Carolina," she said.

A Pew poll released in June found that, despite concerns over racial bias in death sentencing and whether it deters crime, a majority of Americans say they favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder. However, 78% of those surveyed believe there is some risk that an innocent person could be put to death.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Law enforcement agencies are reassessing traffic-stop policies amid concerns from racial-justice advocates.

In Minnesota, a new project is focusing research and financial support for these changes, to help people affected by these laws.

Brooklyn Center leaders recently noted their reform plans include ending arrests for non-moving traffic violations. Elsewhere, the Ramsey County Attorney said last month his office would no longer prosecute cases stemming solely from traffic stops that are not a threat to public safety.

Eric Jolly, president and CEO of the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, said they are getting behind the county's plan with a new fund.

"When people's safety is not at stake, then there's no reason to create a system that causes that anxiety and doesn't reduce the safety concerns," Jolly asserted.

The fund will help determine if the changes are effective in avoiding deadly encounters, and it provides aid to low-income drivers in need of minor repairs that could lead to traffic stops, like a broken tail light.

The Stanford Open Policing Project showed in cities like St. Paul, police stop Black drivers at higher rates than whites. Some law-enforcement associations argued the rule changes will add to public safety problems, not decrease them.

But reform advocates contended longstanding policies about traffic stops rarely help law enforcement build a case. Instead, they said the policies have eroded trust between police and communities of color.

Jolly emphasized it is time to change that dynamic.

"Each time, the pull-over gets more and more anxiety provoking," Jolly observed. "And to stop that means that the next pull-over will have meaning and value."

Ramsey County's plan has the backing of local police leaders, including St. Paul's police chief. Jolly added the approach allows officers to better focus on more pressing matters.

"This is a critical issue as well in greater Minnesota," Jolly remarked. "The rest of Minnesota has to worry about, 'What are the availabilities of the sheriffs? How can we free up their time?'"

The fund will also help establish a way for drivers to be notified of a minor violation without being pulled over. Supporters hope the effort inspires other agencies to consider changes.