What Lawmakers Can Learn from Victims of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking continues to plague our nation. While the extent of the crisis is not fully known, it is estimated that over 1 million trafficking victims are living in modern slavery in America. The figure includes both domestically trafficked individuals and those trafficked into the country. To tackle this burgeoning crisis, much more must be done to increase penalties for commercial sex buyers and facilitators to stop the organized criminal syndicates that reap hundreds of billions of dollars per year worldwide by exploiting our most vulnerable people.

To better understand the issue, on June 26, 2026, the America Combats Trafficking (ACT) initiative at the America First Policy Institute hosted a listening session with former victims of trafficking at the local jail in Chesterfield County, VA. This session, convened by AFPI Senior Fellow and former Acting Director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tony Pham and Senior Policy Advisor Andrew Pavoncello, included participants from law enforcement, social workers, and five female victims of human trafficking. Three of the victims are still incarcerated for illicit substance use, among other crimes, which permeated the time they were trafficked, but participate in a substance abuse recovery program conducted at the jail. That recovery program, called Helping Addicts Recover Progressively (HARP), was established in March of 2016 by Sheriff Karl Leonard. HARP is a peer-to-peer counseling, therapy, and medical program that helps inmates overcome substance abuse.

Addiction often serves as the instrument that traffickers use to control their victims, establishing dependency by keeping them financially and psychologically reliant on them. The Department of State has acknowledged this connection, stating that “the role of substance use disorder in human trafficking is powerful and pervasive; addiction can increase a person’s vulnerability to being trafficked.”

Unfortunately, correctional facilities frequently fail to recognize the connection between drug abuse and trafficking. In our listening session, we heard that many women enter the criminal justice system for committing prostitution-related offenses, drug crimes, or other non-violent crimes without being fully vetted and identified as trafficking victims.

Programs like HARP, however, provide standardized screening procedures that incorporate the services of mental health experts and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE). These professional services are the first step in earlier detection and intervention. While initially focusing on substance abuse, the process does more than help inmates get clean and sober; it also identifies mental health and other underlying issues that plague their addiction.

When victims are identified as trafficking victims, it shifts the focus from being portrayed as perpetrators of the crimes they were coerced into committing to the trauma they endured. All five victims said that implementing these standardized screening procedures across all correctional facilities would significantly increase the likelihood that others might be identified as trafficking victims. Victims and substance abusers who establish rapport with law enforcement, medical, and mental health professionals in these spaces reduce recidivism after their release. The national average of repeat offenders is 70 percent, while the HARP program’s recidivism rate is just 18 percent.

Preventing recidivism, however, also requires imposing consequences for those who purchase the sex services of trafficking victims or are otherwise complicit in trafficking. Ironically, these purchasers often receive lighter penalties than trafficking victims, or they avoid charges completely. One of the victims lamented that there was no ability for her to escape because her trafficker rented the whole motel and used it for trafficking operations. “Drugs were kept up front. He had his drug runners in a few rooms in the back. They would watch the parking lot. It's only one way in, one way out.”

Reintegrating into society can also be more difficult for trafficking victims if they have criminal records that impede them from employment, housing, and financial stability. Recently, President Trump signed the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which authorizes courts, under certain circumstances, to expunge arrest records and criminal convictions for victims who have committed either non-violent or violent federal crimes (if the victim of the crime is not a minor) as a direct result of being a victim of human trafficking.

Continuous post-incarceration care is also critical for individuals recovering from addiction and trafficking-related trauma. More than 80 percent of survivors return to commercial sex work due to lapses in support programs. According to the State Department, some traffickers recruit directly from detox and addiction treatment facilities, making recovery that much harder. Providing and maintaining uninterrupted access to treatment facilities and secured, effective emergency housing during reentry into society reduces recidivism and decreases the likelihood that traffickers can manipulate and recruit their victims again.

Our insight into these victims’ experiences confirms that addiction should not be viewed as a comorbid condition, but as a tool that traffickers, who most often are their drug dealers, use to manipulate, groom, and retain victims. We asked our participants if they had one thing to say to lawmakers, what would it be? One victim responded: “What I’d like them to know is that drug use and the trafficking go hand in hand. If you look at my record, it all has to do with each other.”

The experiences of the victims participating in HARP, although heart-wrenching, powerfully illustrate that recovering from trafficking is not fully achieved by being rescued. Rather, lawmakers should consider implementing a new screening and tracking protocol at the correctional facilities, like gang screening that identifies trafficking patterns, maps connections to organized crime and cartels, and better equips investigators to pursue the traffickers responsible. The discussion highlighted that the continuity of health care services, stable and safe housing, trauma-informed services, and in-house correctional programs like HARP are vital to preserving human dignity by making the intersection of substance abuse and trafficking a lesson learned from our past.