January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. If you suspect an act of human trafficking in your area, you can report a tip to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. This national, toll free hotline is available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.

President Barack Obama proclaimed January 2010 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. During January, the President urged all Americans to, “educate themselves about all forms of modern slavery and the signs and consequences of human trafficking.” 

 Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice are deeply committed to combating all forms of modern slavery and trafficking in persons. In coordination with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, as well as and nongovernmental organizations we investigate and prosecute human traffickers and provide comprehensive assistance to victims.

In 2009, the Department’s Civil Rights Division, in partnership with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, brought a record number of human trafficking cases, including the highest number of labor trafficking cases ever brought in a single year.  These cases involve the use of force, threats of force, or other forms of coercion to compel labor or services, including commercial sex acts, from victims. 

One case involved the trafficking of two young girls, including a 13 year-old, from rural Mexico to Tennessee with the intent of forcing them into prostitution.  In December a woman from Tennessee was sentenced to 190 months in prison on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.  Her co-defendant was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2008.  Both pleaded guilty and admitted to fraudulently luring the two young girls.  The multi-agency investigation and federal prosecution resulted in the successful conviction of 11 defendants.

Earlier this month, the Civil Rights Division secured guilty pleas from two defendants in a forced labor case in Hawaii.  Farm co-owners pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit forced labor. The men admitted to conspiring with one another and others to hold 44 Thai agricultural workers in service at their farm through a scheme of debts, threats of harm and restraint.  They each face up to five years in prison for their roles in the labor trafficking scheme.

 Through the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Sections, as well as the U.S. Attorneys’ Office, the Department investigates and prosecutes American citizens who contribute to the sex trafficking of children abroad by engaging in a practice known as “child sex tourism,” where individuals travel abroad and pay to have sex with children. One such child sex tourist admitted that he had repeatedly traveled to the Philippines where he made two young girls sign a contract to be his “sex slave.”

 In another case resulting in a guilty plea, an American child sex tourist admitted he traveled to Thailand each year from 2000 to 2002 to sexually abuse children.  While there, he paid for unfettered access to children, brought items to facilitate their sexual abuse, and then sexually abused the children at will, sometimes photographing and videotaping the activity.

In addition to prosecuting cases that directly involve human trafficking, the Department is continuing its efforts to disrupt trafficking by prosecuting human smuggling rings. The Criminal Division’s Domestic Security Section, working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), targets human smuggling networks that are known to transport people under dangerous conditions or where patterns of egregious migrant abuse is evident. Dismantling smuggling networks and disrupting the routes used by traffickers contributes to the overall efforts to end the scourge of trafficking.

 Another one of the ways the Department works to combat human trafficking and support victims is through its Office of Justice Programs (OJP). OJP provides funding support, training, and technical assistance to 39 anti-human trafficking law enforcement task forces and 39 nongovernmental victim service organizations throughout the United States. This dual approach entails a victim-centered approach for identifying, rescuing, and providing timely, comprehensive assistance to victims of human trafficking who are foreign nationals—including both female and male victims of sex and labor trafficking.

Since 2003, OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has provided funding to nongovernmental victim service organizations to support the needs of trafficking victims. Those needs often include shelter/housing, sustenance, medical and dental care, mental health treatment, interpretation/translation services, legal and immigration services, literacy education, and more. OVC partnered with OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) in 2004 to support the anti-human trafficking task force model around the country. Each task force includes, but is not limited to, representation from local or territorial, state, and federal law enforcement prosecutorial agencies (including the FBI, ICE, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices), and an OVC-funded trafficking victim service provider organization.

In December 2009, OVC launched a 3-year demonstration project, in three sites, to provide comprehensive services to domestic minor victims of human trafficking in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. They will develop programs to serve female and male victims of sex and labor trafficking who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. The types of assistance provided to these victims are similar to those provided to victims who are foreign nationals; however, services are geared toward the unique circumstances of U.S. citizens who are under 18 years old.

Also in December 2009, OVC and BJA hosted the first Regional Training Forum in Tampa, Florida, for the South and Southeast regions of the U.S. The Forum provided an opportunity for the BJA task forces and the OVC service providers to receive training, discuss case information, share intelligence, and network with other law enforcement and victim service providers in the region.

According to one attendee, the Forum included “one of the best active intelligence exchanges I have attended with law enforcement in a long time…in part because this was a regional training, where patterns and cases were seen crossing into each other’s backyards.”  Additional forums will take place around the U.S. in 2010.

In May 2010, the Department will host its fourth National Conference on Human Trafficking in Arlington, Virginia. Approximately 600 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers, prosecutors, victim service providers, and other professionals will be invited to attend this event. We will address the complexities of human trafficking, facilitate the sharing of promising practices, and support the development of evidence-based strategies to combat slavery and human trafficking in the U.S.

For more information on both the Department of Justice and the Federal Government’s efforts to combat trafficking, please see the Attorney General’s Annual Report to Congress and Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons, released in June 2009. This report is compiled and released annually.

 As President Obama states in his proclamation, “Together, we can and must end this most serious, ongoing criminal civil rights violation.” 

 January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. If you suspect an act of human trafficking in your area, you can report a tip to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. This national, toll free hotline is available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.

Today , the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive announced the winners of the fourth annual Electronics Reuse and Recycling Campaign (ERRC). The Department of Justice is proud to have made that list – receiving the award for Centralized Agency Participation. Between October of 2008 and September of 2009 the Department of Justice recycled or reused 3,264,646 pounds of electronic equipment to earn the award.

 In the 2009 America Recycles Day Presidential Proclamation, President Barack Obama said:

 “Recycling improves our daily lives and helps to protect our planet for the future.  Through recycling, we conserve energy, consume less of our precious natural resources, decrease the amount of waste deposited in landfills, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” 

 We couldn’t agree more. The Department of Justice recognizes that  Executive Order13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance mandates the responsible disposal of electronic materials, but finding ways to reuse these materials, as well as properly recycle them, reduces waste and protects our environment.   We are committed to serving as an example of environmental stewardship.  

 Electronics disposal is just one part of the Department of Justice’s overall recycling plan. In 2009, the Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice building alone recycled 112 tons of materials. The efforts of the Department are guided by the Environmental Program and Policy Staff. To learn more about these efforts, please visit their Web site at: www.justice.gov/jmd/ep/

 We are grateful to the ERRC for their assistance throughout the competition. For more information about the ERRC visit: http://www.ofee.gov/

This week, the Justice Department, in partnership with the PEW Center on the States, Public Welfare Foundation, and the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center hosted a National Summit on Justice Reinvestment on Capitol Hill.

Justice Reinvestment is a data-driven approach to reduce corrections spending and re-direct savings to other criminal justice strategies that decrease crime and strengthen neighborhoods. At the Summit, speakers discussed the need to address recidivism rates and corrections spending as well as how best to assist localities struggling with unsuccessful and unsustainable prison and corrections policies.

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, over the past two decades, state spending on corrections has grown at a rate faster than nearly any other state budget item. On a nationwide scale, state spending on corrections has increased from about $12 billion to $52 billion a year.

In spite of mounting expenditures, recidivism rates remain high. Research by the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that half of all offenders released from state prison are sent back within three years. Most of the people released from prison are placed under some form of community supervision. In 2008, the Pew Center on the States reported, 7.3 million people were under correctional supervision, or 1 in every 31 adults.

Families, neighborhoods, communities, and states can no longer afford this costly cycle of incarceration. To help address these issues, OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance partnered with CSG’s Justice Center and launched the Justice Reinvestment initiative. Since that time, other funding partners have begun supporting the initiative.

These groups are working closely with state and local policymakers to help design policies that manage the growth of the corrections system. They are finding ways to improve the availability of services, such as housing, substance abuse treatment, employment training, and positive social and family support for offenders returning to communities. They are also looking to reinvest savings generated from reductions in corrections spending to make communities safer, stronger, and healthier.

Justice Reinvestment is already showing results.

• In Kansas, the prison population was expected to increase 22 percent by 2016 at a cost of approximately $500 million in additional construction and operating costs. Analysis by experts from CSG’s Justice Center showed that violations of parole and probation were a significant factor in individuals returning to prison. In response, the state enacted new policies and redirected $7.9 million to strengthen probation and parole operations and expand treatment programs. As a result, the state prison population decreased by 4 percent and recidivism rates declined by more than 20 percent.
• Policymakers in Connecticut, facing an unprecedented budget deficit and a prison population growing faster than any other state, enacted laws that streamlined the parole process for low-risk offenders, addressed the high rate of probation violations, and developed a comprehensive strategy to reduce recidivism. Almost $13 million of the nearly $30 million saved was reinvested in community-based pilot projects. Probation violations dropped from 400 in July 2003 to 200 in September 2005. The decrease in the prison population over a two-year period was steeper than that seen in almost any other state while the crime rate continued to drop.
• Nevada’s prison population has been among the fastest growing in the nation, and was projected to grow faster, increasing 61 percent by 2017. High rates of failure among people on probation as well as the lack of community-based treatment for substance abuse, mental illness, or co-occurring disorders were identified as the key factors driving the growth in the prison population. In response to this growth, the legislature enacted several policy measures to provide incentives for people to successfully complete probation and parole terms in Nevada. As a result, the state expected to save $28 million by 2009. To ensure that the savings are reinvested in expanding community-based behavioral health care services, the state established a Justice Reinvestment fund with $6.3 million.

Despite the progress we’re making, recidivism remains a complicated challenge and there is a lot more to learn in this area. For instance, one preliminary study (PDF) by OJP’s National Institute of Justice found that if first-time arrestees remained “arrest-free” for 3 to 8 years, they were no more likely to be arrested in the future than individuals who had never been arrested. Think about what that could mean for ex-offenders in areas such as employment, housing, and loans. And think of what that means in our efforts to reduce crime and protect communities.

At the Department of Justice, we believe we have a responsibility to be not only tough on crime, but also smart on crime. This means, supporting programs that are backed by evidence of effectiveness. Instead of relying exclusively on punishment, Justice Reinvestment is providing better outcomes for communities and improving public safety.

For more information, please visit www.justicereinvestment.org.

The following post appears courtesy of Jeff Slowikowski, Acting Administrator for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, chaired by Attorney General Eric Holder, held its quarterly meeting this week in Washington, DC. As an independent body within the executive branch of the federal government, the Council works to improve the coordination of federally funded youth programs.

During the meeting the council unanimously approved a 2010 workplan and identified priority issues for interagency collaboration. The four issues the Council plans to focus on are:

• Education and At-Risk Youth
• Tribal Youth and Juvenile Justice
• Juvenile Reentry
• Racial/Ethnic Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System and Related Systems.

This year, “issue teams” will conduct in-depth assessments for each priority issue and produce a set of recommendations that will be incorporated into the Council’s next Annual Report to Congress. A representative from the Department of Justice and a representative from one of the Council’s member agencies will co-chair each team.

At monthly meetings, the teams will analyze policies, legislation, budgets, regulations, and practices to identify those that foster and those that hinder effective collaboration between federal, state, and local partners. They will develop recommendations for enhancing the federal practice of coordinated assistance. Each team aims to find ways to improve access to and use of resources by state and local stakeholders that will improve the well-being of children and families.

The list of council priorities is just the beginning. In the coming years, as the Council moves ahead in its work, there will be the opportunity to add other areas of concentration. This is not the end of the line; it is just the beginning.

Attorney General Holder emphasized that the Department of Justice will place a high priority on the Council’s activities going forward. Working together, we hope to make a significant difference in the lives of at-risk youth and their families who so urgently need our help.

The following post by Norm Eisen, special advisor to President Obama for ethics and government reform, originally appeared on the White House blog.

Now that the Administration has served for more than a year, we are starting to see real progress on the openness and transparency front.  For the most part, we have gotten high marks in this area, but we take exception to the views expressed in a Washington Post story today.

The Post acknowledges that, in his first full day in office, the President directed federal agencies to become more open, including by applying a presumption of openness to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act.  The Post questions whether these policies are having a real impact. 

The numbers demonstrate that they are.  Contrary to the Post’s assertions, the amount of litigation is already declining.  The Department of Justice found that 22 fewer FOIA cases were filed in 2009 than 2008.  And agencies are making more voluntary releases of information.  The Department of Justice granted 13 percent more FOIA requests in part in 2009 than it did in the last year of the previous Administration, and granted 5 percent more in full than it did in the previous year.  Those are meaningful increases that illustrate the impact of the Administration’s FOIA policy. 

The government isn’t just being more open when people ask for information.  At the White House and across the agencies, we are using innovative platforms to engage citizens in shaping government policy.  And in some instances we are taking actions to make government more open and transparent that prevent Americans from needing to file FOIA requests at all.  The President issued an executive order to make it easier for the public to access historic records that are currently classified but no longer need to be kept secret to protect national security.  Data.gov now hosts over 1,000 sets of government information available for download, and agencies’ websites are being constantly updated to include more content.  And for the first time in history, the White House is voluntarily publishing visitor records online – enabling the American people to see who is visiting the people’s house.  Click here for a list of our open government accomplishments so far.

We did this in the first year of the Administration, even though some said it would be impossible to change entrenched governmental practices on an issue like FOIA.  We recognize that this is just a start, and that there is much more work to be done.  Change takes time and persistence, and we expect government to become even more open in the years to come.  But we know we have established a firm foundation and we are moving in the right direction.

The Obama administration is committed to using every instrument of national power to fight terrorism – including intelligence and military operations as well as the criminal justice system.  As a counter-terrorism tool, the criminal justice system has proven incredibly effective in both incapacitating terrorists and gathering valuable intelligence from and about terrorists.  In every instance, the administration will use the tool that is most effective for fighting terrorism, and will make those decisions based on pragmatism, not ideology. 

 I.  Intelligence Collection

 The criminal justice system has been the source of extremely valuable intelligence on al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.  The criminal justice system provides powerful incentives for suspects to provide accurate, reliable information, and the Department of Justice and FBI work closely with the rest of the intelligence community to maximize information and intelligence obtained from each cooperator.  Below are just a few public examples.

 Cooperators Provide Intelligence on al-Qaeda and Other Terror Groups

•  L’Houssaine Kherchtou, who was arrested, Mirandized, charged with terrorism offenses, and cooperated with the government, provided critical intelligence on al-Qaeda.  He testified in 2001 against four al-Qaeda members who were later sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in connection with the East Africa Embassy bombings.
•  After his capture in Afghanistan, John Walker Lindh pleaded guilty in 2002 to supporting the Taliban and, as part of his plea agreement, provided valuable intelligence about training camps and fighting in Afghanistan.
•  Mohammed Junaid Babar, arrested in 2004 for supporting al Qaeda and plotting attacks in the United Kingdom, has provided intelligence on terrorist groups operating along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border and has testified in the successful trials of terrorists in the United Kingdom and Canada.  He is scheduled to testify in another terrorism trial in New York later this year.
•  David Headley, arrested in 2009 and charged in connection with a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper and his alleged role in the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, has provided extremely valuable intelligence regarding those attacks, the terrorist organization Lashkar y Tayyiba, and Pakistan-based terrorist leaders.
•  Adis Medunjanin, an alleged associate of Najibullah Zazi, was taken into custody in January 2010, and, after waiving his Miranda rights, provided detailed information to the FBI about terrorist-related activities of himself and others in the United States and Pakistan.  He has been charged with conspiring to kill U.S. nationals overseas and receiving military-type training from al-Qaeda.
• Other law enforcement cooperators are currently providing important intelligence regarding terrorist activity from East Africa to South Asia and regarding plots to attack the United States and Europe.

 II  Incapacitating Terrorists

 Hundreds of terrorism suspects have been successfully prosecuted in federal court since 9/11.  Today, there are more than 300 international or domestic terrorists incarcerated in U.S. federal prison facilities.  Events over the past year demonstrate the continuing value of federal courts in combating terrorism.  In 2009, there were more defendants charged with terrorism violations in federal court than in any year since 9/11. 

 Past Terrorism Convictions and Recent Terrorism Indictments

•  Richard Reid was arrested in December 2001 and convicted pursuant to a guilty plea in October 2002 of attempting to ignite a shoe bomb while on a flight from Paris to Miami carrying 184 passengers and 14 crewmembers.  He is serving a life prison term.
•  Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was convicted in November 2005 of conspiracy to assassinate the U.S. President and conspiracy to commit air piracy and conspiracy to destroy aircraft. Ali was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
•  In May 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to various terrorism violations, admitting that he conspired with al-Qaeda to hijack and crash planes into prominent U.S. buildings as part of the 9/11 attacks.
•  In September 2009, Najibullah Zazi was charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction as part of an al-Qaeda plot bomb targets in the United States. Several of his alleged associates have been arrested and charged in federal court.
•  During 2009, 14 individuals were charged in the District of Minnesota connection with an ongoing investigation of individuals who have traveled from Minnesota to Somalia to train with or fight on behalf of the terrorist group al-Shabaab.
•  In September 2009, Daniel Patrick Boyd and others were charged with plotting an attack on U.S. military personnel at the Quantico Marine Base, as well as recruiting young people to travel overseas in order to kill.