California child sex trafficking bill that divided Democrats clears hurdle

The initial demise of the child sex trafficking measure by state Sen. Shannon Grove, pictured in 2019 with Gov. A proposed law in California to lengthen prison terms for child sex trafficking that ignited public outrage and divided Democrats this summer was changed during a critical vote on Friday to address concerns over victims potentially being prosecuted. An amended version of Senate Bill 14, which would add the sex trafficking of minors to the list of felonies classified as serious under California’s penal code and subject people to additional time in prison under the state’s “three strikes” law, passed the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday. “That was not our intent, ever, to have a victim prosecuted for human trafficking trafficked themselves.” Disagreement over the closely watched measure reached a boiling point earlier this summer when the the left-leaning Democratic majority on the Assembly’s high-profile Public Safety Committee blocked passage of the bill, which had glided through the Senate with bipartisan support earlier in the year. “We are approaching the conversation from a completely wrong direction if we say we are going to increase penalties and we’re going to prosecute our way out of it.” The bill’s initial demise caused a public relations nightmare for Democrats, handing Republicans the rare opportunity for a legislative win after they painted their counterparts in the majority as apologists for child sex trafficking.