Urge Gov. Paterson to Sign the Safe Harbor Act
Send the Governor Pens Today!
 Send Governor Paterson pens to urge him to sign the Safe Harbor Act for Exploited Children (A.5258-c/S.3175-c)! The bill has passed in the Senate and the Assembly, but is yet to be signed into law. Along with the pens, send a note asking Governor Paterson to take a stand for the thousands of sexually exploited youth in New York.
At NOW-NYC we bought inexpensive pens to which we are attaching messages about the Safe Harbor Act and the commerical sexual exploitation of children in New York State. Imagine the Governor's office overflowing with millions of pens urging him to sign the bill into law! What if the Governor uses your pen to sign the Safe Harbor Act into law? Even though it only takes one pen to sign the bill into law, let's make sure Governor Paterson has more than enough.
The Safe Harbor Act will stop the arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of children involved in prostitution, and requires the state to create a range of community-based services--such as community outreach, crisis intervention, short-term safe houses, and long-term housing--to help these children. This support is critical so that these children can reclaim their young lives.
Send the pens of support to the following address along with a letter of support (see below for a template you can use):
Governor David A. Paterson
Executive Mansion
138 Eagle Street
Albany, NY 12224
Governor Paterson can also be reached at 518-474-8390 or http://www.state.ny.us/governor/contact/index.html. It takes five minutes to call and leave your comment. You can also sign the online petition.
Letter template you can use:
Dear Governor Paterson,
I urge you to sign into law the SAFE Harbor for Exploited Children Act (A.5258; S.3175) which will stop the prosecution of sexually exploited children in our state and create a range of community-based programs to assist these children. Human trafficking is a serious crime in New York State and throughout the country. This legislation recognizes the urgent need to extend critical protection to some of its youngest victims.
Each year, thousands of children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation throughout New York State. According to a report by WESTAT for the New York State Office of Child and Family Services, 67% of victims in New York City are African-American, 74% of exploitation takes place in a hotel or outside, and 75% of it is by strangers. In Upstate New York, 52% of abuse occurred in the child’s home while 58% of abusers were adult friends or acquaintances. Finally, 17% of the sex acts were used in films, photos or pornography.
In our state, selling sex is a harsh reality for girls as young as twelve, yet our current legal system re-victimizes these children by treating them as criminals and denying them access to the services they desperately need. With this new law in place, the funds that New York State now spends to incarcerate sexually exploited children can be re-directed to cover the cost of providing the specialized services these young victims need in order to live free from abuse.
We believe the Safe Harbor Act will be a critical tool in helping New York State move from prosecuting to protecting children exploited in the commercial sex trade. This law will enable these children to rebuild their young lives. We ask you to signal your clear understanding of the failure of past policies and the promise of this new approach by signing this bill into law. We thank you for your leadership in protecting all victims of crime in our state.
Sincerely,
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P.S. To ensure that you have a pen at hand with which to sign, we enclose this nominal gift. Use it in good health on this and other worthy legislation.
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