RHB/8/21
Sponsored by Landon Murphy, Aliza Avelar Prieto of John Overton High School
This legislation was filed in the Human Services category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: Terms in this act will be defined as followed: |
| 4 | Sex trafficking: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or |
| 5 | soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. |
| 6 | Rape kits: four-to-six-hour examination that will preserve this evidence in a sexual assault |
| 7 | evidence collection kit |
| 8 | Day One: a non profit organization that combats sexual violence through treatment, intervention, |
| 9 | and prevention services. They advocate for policy changes and offer trauma-informed care to |
| 10 | victims referred by agencies, serving all ages in Rhode Island. |
| 11 | Counseling: Talking with individuals that think they are going to be victims or have been |
| 12 | victimized |
| 13 | Prevention: action taken to decrease the chance of something |
| 14 | DNA laboratories: a research institute that can analyze DNA. |
| 15 | TBI: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation - a forensic organization located in Tennessee that serves |
| 16 | to use science in the criminal justice field. |
| 17 | YMCA: nonprofit committed to strengthening community by empowering young people, improving |
| 18 | the health and well-being of people of all ages and inspiring action in and across communities. |
| 19 | Federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021:the latest federal stimulus bill to aid public health and |
| 20 | economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic |
| 21 | ASCLD: American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. This is what allows the testing of certain |
| 22 | experiments and is existent for all labs in the country within NGO’s , Universities, and |
| 23 | organizations. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Section 2: This act will work to expand the Department of Law, Safety, Corrections portion of the |
| 26 | entire Tennessee state budget by .15% or $4.3 million. $4 million of that will be used to send a |
| 27 | baseline total of 1100 rape kits to the Florida lab to be examined the first year and an additional |
| 28 | 825 the following year. This will help alleviate backed up rape kit DNA testing results until the new |
| 29 | DNA laboratory located in Nashville, Tennessee is finished being built. The laboratory will begin |
| 30 | construction in April 2024 and will be usable by July 2026. |
| 31 | The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is backed up on rape kit testings resulting in several |
| 32 | kits being discarded and leaving those victims neglected and contributing into the fears of being |
| 33 | forgotten. |
| 34 | The Florida lab is much larger and has a higher opportunity for testing seeing as they are more |
| 35 | financially feasible. Whereas Tennessee does not have as much room. This is due to the |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Section 3: Seeing as how the Federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 issued a plan to begin |
| 38 | renovations of a DNA extraction laboratory in 2024 and stated the finished product to be in July of |
| 39 | 2026 this bill will only ask for the budget increase for the two years. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | Section 4: An implementation of the Day One program that is ongoing in Rhode Island wil be made |
| 42 | into the state of Tennessee. This program has assisted Rhode Island tremendously in keeping sex |
| 43 | trafficking number as low roughly 23 compared to Tennessee at roughly 1,150 known victims. |
| 44 | Rhode Island is the state with the lowest number of sex trafficking to occur. The sex trafficking |
| 45 | rate was .92-1.46 every 100,000 people as of 2023. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | Section 5: The Day One program will be added to the three major cities in Tennessee including |
| 48 | Memphis, Nashville, And Knoxville. The Day One program is a program that consists of a 24 hour |
| 49 | call center that serves as a helpline; The only thing required is an individual and a laptop which |
| 50 | will come with the price already stated in Section 7. Day One will run an advocacy program that |
| 51 | pushes forth the education needed to prevent the risk of being sex trafficked. It is very survivor |
| 52 | driven, this allows for counseling either in groups or individuals for survivors to communicate and |
| 53 | express their experiences and continue living. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | Section 6: In the major cities the Day One program will partner with local YMCA locations to be |
| 56 | able to educate and advocate towards all age ranges. The partnership is ensured by the YMCAs For |
| 57 | A Better Us statement: At the Y, strengthening the community is our cause. Every day, we work |
| 58 | side by side with our neighbors to make sure that everyone ”regardless of age, income or |
| 59 | background” has the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive. With that partnership the YMCA will |
| 60 | provide space for the program to run monthly or weekly sessions of training, educational classes, |
| 61 | and counseling. Equipment such as educational resources, training equipment, and counseling |
| 62 | resources will be covered by $300,000. The Day One programs located in each of the cities will |
| 63 | receive $100,000. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | Section 7: Day One will be required to recruit its own advocates. Each city will need no more than |
| 66 | 25 advocates which total 75 across the whole state. The Day One will be able to recruit that |
| 67 | amount because of the prevention they were able to do in its home state of Rhode Island. All non |
| 68 | profit workers will be paid through the funds that Day One already holds. Those funds that Day |
| 69 | One acquires already are from donations and grants that were given. Due to the Day One program |
| 70 | being expanded, Day One will gain more donations allowing them to pay the workers. |
| 71 | All programs and systems that Day One uses currently in Rhode Island will carry over into the |
| 72 | state of Tennessee locations. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | Section 8: The total cost if enacted will be $4.3 million allocated from the Department of Tourism |
| 75 | Development to the Department of Law, Safety, and Corrections to pay for two years of sending |
| 76 | rape kits to the Florida DNA lab and to establish the Day One program in Memphis, Nashville, and |
| 77 | Knoxville. The Department of Tourism Development will only be shortened by one Fiscal year |
| 78 | because of the $4.3 million covering two years worth of work. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | Section 9: All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this bill are hereby repealed |
| 81 | |
| 82 | Section 10: This Act will take effect April 31st, 2024 |
| 83 |