Court of Common Pleas Commissioner Mary McDonough’s Human Trafficking Court, a special treatment court for adult prostitutes — one of 14 nationwide when it was first established — was a lifeline for women troubled by low self-esteem and a history of physical and emotional abuse stemming from childhood trauma, according to Cheri Collins, Vice President of Meet Me at the Well Foundation in St. Georges.
In December, the court was shut down with no immediate replacement.
The decision to cut costs and consolidate the court into a new, multipurpose community court has riled trafficking victim advocates, who point to it as another example of Delaware turning its back on a 2014 state law that was supposed to help victims stop cycling through the criminal justice system and rebuild their lives.
A key measure in Delaware’s sweeping Human Trafficking legislation, championed by then-Attorney General Beau Biden, was to protect victims and offer them rehabilitative services to help them cope mentally and physically with past trauma. Under the law, sex workers would be spared criminal penalties for acts that they had been forced to commit.
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Disclosure: In 2010, Commissioner McDonough was chair of Delaware Coalition for Health and Justice, which included Brandywine Counseling & Community Services, and helped facilitate the Human Trafficking Court and treatment program in New Castle County in conjunction with WISH (Women In Support of Health) outreach to provide support for women engaging in sex work. BCCS was a WISH grantee and provided outreach services. Under a five-year, $1.5 million grant, the WISH program reached more than 15,000 female sex workers, many of whom were sexually abused as children and became drug-addicted mothers. Nearly 600 participants in the treatment program reported lower rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, emergency room use and certain high-risk sexual behaviors.