The Central Ohio Rescue and Restore Coalition has been following legislation for Ohio Senate Bill 4 and Ohio House Bill 56 and are asking us to support Senate Bill 4.
Ohio Senate Bill 4 focuses on helping sex trafficking survivors expunge criminal records from when they were trafficked. While Ohio House Bill 56 has the same intent as SB 4 and similar language, it is much more restrictive than the version of SB 4 that passed the Ohio Senate, which means only a very restricted class of sex trafficking survivors will be able to expunge their criminal records if HB 56 passes.
This leaves a number of sex trafficking survivors out in the cold – quite literally, as they will continue to struggle to secure housing and employment with their outstanding criminal records.