The below is OCEAN Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 9, Article 1 (Jan. 15, 2020) published by Russell J. Hatton & Daniel A. Wilson from the gulag in Moose Lake Minnesota.
January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
We know that January is almost over. However, the issue of slavery and human trafficking is not.
If you suspect human trafficking call 1-866-347-2423.
If you need help, call l -888-373-7888.
Learn how you can help to end trafficking at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/about/ways-endtrafficking.
Use #SlaveryHumanTraffickingPreventionMonth to share on social media.
Learn how human trafficking is happening at www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign.
OCEAN is not associated with the above cited organizations.
According to the International Labor Organization, there are approximately 40 million human trafficking victims worldwide. Through a variety of tactics including violence and threats, traffickers force their victims into forced labor or commercial sex against their wishes. 1
January 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA).
The TVP A established a comprehensive framework for combating human trafficking by establishing prevention programs, creating victim protections, and advancing prosecutions under expanded criminal statutes to usher in the modern anti-trafficking movement domestically and globally.
In October 2019, the Department of Homeland Security initiated more than 800 investigations related to human trafficking and the Department of State launched its Human Trafficking Expert Consultant Network, comprised of survivors and other experts, to inform its anti-trafficking policies and programs. The department of Health and Human Services continues to provide funding for the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and in Fiscal Year 2018 it funded victim assistance programs that provided benefits and services to more than 2,400 victims.
The Department of Transportation committed $5.4 million in grants to the prevention of human trafficking and similar crimes.2
In honor of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, OCEAN would like to take time to discuss a concern that has recently come to our attention.
OCEAN does NOT condone any form of sexual abuse, molestation, rape, incest, mutilation, or harassment in any culture, location, or situation. OCEAN does not support lowering the age of consent, nor condones sexual activity between children and adults, or heinous sexual activities that violate state laws. We are not in alliance with these ideals at all. We are confined in an institution and have little access to information about organizations. Please let us know if you think we are unknowingly associated with organizations that support the beliefs we stated above.
As former offenders, we wish to bring a level of closure to those who have endured sexual violence. We feel real sorrow for our bad choices.
OCEAN is an acronym for “Overcoming Corruption Encouraging All Nations.” This is the concept that drives us. We believe that we can overcome our impurities and in turn, others who also have struggled with, or may still struggle with uncomfortable sexual thoughts and habits, can overcome them too. In fact, the very low level of sex offense recidivism shows this to be true.
At a point in our lives, we made bad choices and we hurt innocent people. Now we regret and repent and seek to overcome our own internal corruption. As part of that process, we have found purpose in addressing external injustices as well.
We understand that we are defined by what we do as a result of what we believe. Therefore, as long as we defend our offensive past, we can justifiably be called “offenders.” However, when we began to contemplate the experience of victims, we also began to fight against behaviors that caused their trauma. Thus, we have become Defenders, rather than offenders.
When an offender labels a victim as a “survivor” he is potentially minimizing his misconduct. In our efforts to eradicate sex offender recidivism, we celebrate moments when victims identify themselves as survivors.
However, as Defenders, we cannot apply the term “survivor” liberally. We will not refer to victims as survivors UNTIL WE ARE TOLD by an individual who wishes to be identified this way. To do otherwise would presume that those we have harmed have healed, when perhaps they haven’t.
Do victims of sexual violence know of the punitive and draconian effects of MSOP? Are victims of sexual assault satisfied with the current “solutions” being used to address sexual violence?
Court of Appeals Judge Edward Randall dissenting in Eric Eischens case in June 2014, who said that MSOP is, “cruel and inhuman,” also said:
Our resources, the taxpayers’ money, would be better spent on real programming in prison and programming in the community . . . Where would all the money come from to ramp up what present programs there are in prison for sex offenders? Those funds dollars would come from the budget for MSOP … (comparing the expenditures for sexual violence treatment and prevention in the community with expenditures for MSOP commitments and concluding that three offenders could be treated in the
community for the cost of one offender civilly committed.). Do the math: 698 at $120,000 a year equals $83,760,000; 698 at $140,000 a year equals $97,720,000. That is the present budget to warehouse people at MSOP. The number of “clients” is projected to increase to 1109 by 2020. (internal citations omitted) 3
Do the victims of sexual assault in Minnesota know that several hundred sex offenders are locked up for life, without receiving treatment? Even Judge Randall uses quotation marks when he calls us “clients.” Perhaps many victims could care less-and they would be justified. However, is it just to lock up hundreds, under the cloak of treatment, at the expense of a couple thousand, being refused treatment?
One positive thing Judge Randall’s comments reveal is that we are not at the projected 1109 “clients” that was predicted by the OLA. We are closer to 740. This is good. Not because sex offenders should not be held accountable, but because they should be. We know that wherever those offenders are, they are more likely to receive the services they need, the further away from MSOP they are.
MSOP disgraces the profession of psychology by refusing treatment to the mentally ill. Instead of showing that offenders can change, and that the world can be a safe place, the message to the victim is, “The guy that hurt you is not fixable.” This narrative is a lie. However, MSOP would suffer greatly if they admitted this.
FOOTNOTES
1 https ://nationaldaycalendar .com/national-slavery-and-human-trafficking-prevention-month …
2www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/news/prevention-month-2020. Read the full proclamation at
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-national-slavery-human-trafficking-preventionmonth- 2020/
3Eric John Eischens, 201 4 Minn. App. Unpub. LEXIS 622, A l 4-001 3, June 23, 2014.
Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the
wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
