Rethink Resources

More positive news for harm reduction efforts as funding increases for California needle exchange programs.

Toledo, Ohio is once again the site of a national sex trade involving teens - this time a man pleaded guilty to five felonies in federal court, including compelling underage prostitution, to send young women to national fraternity conventions.

A Nevada man got life for taking two teens across state lines and compelling them into the sex trade. The first trial ended in a mistrial when the younger (14 year old) teen refused to testify. But they got his wife on conspiracy charges and she testified against him in this trial.

Here’s an intense personal story about a man who survived foster care and wants to start a program for foster care youth. I wanted to point out his openness about having to trade sex for food from older youth in his foster home.

On the note of foster care, a major study came out this week demonstrating that youth who are abused or neglected are better off in their families than go into foster care. The study set aside case of extreme abuse and neglect and focused on those cases that could have been decided either way. In significant ways, youth fared substantially worse in foster care.

Hitting the Funding Vein (California) Wednesday, July 4, 2007 With a new state initiative, needle-exchange programs finally get what they really need from government: money. Patrick Stonehouse spends the better part of his day waiting for drug addicts. They come into his workplace, the Drop-in Center on Front Street in Santa Cruz, hand him a collection of drug-tainted, sometimes HIV- or Hepatitis C–infected needles, and in return he smiles and hands back an equal number of fresh, clean needles. Most of the time this is just the beginning of the interaction.

Toledo prostitution ring tied to fraternity (Ohio) Tuesday, July 3, 2007 Threads of a national initiative to stop the underage sex trade have once again led to Toledo.This time, they’re also tied to an international African-American fraternity that last year celebrated its 100th anniversary during a glitzy, star-studded convention in Washington.

Study: Children better off with parents than foster care (Illinois) Tuesday, July 3, 2007 Children whose families are investigated for abuse or neglect are likely to do better in life if they stay with their families than if they go into foster care, according to a pioneering study. The findings intensify a vigorous debate in child welfare: whether children are better-protected with their families or away from them.

Nevada man gets life sentence in teen prostitution case (California) Tuesday, July 3, 2007 A Nevada man convicted in federal court of taking two girls across a state line to work as prostitutes in California has been sentenced to life without parole as a repeat sex offender against children. Juan Rico Doss, 38, of Reno, Nev., was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson in Riverside. Jurors convicted Doss last month of several counts including sex trafficking of children, conspiracy, and witness tampering.

Foster Fallout (Pennsylvania) Monday, July 2, 2007 Shuffled about and abused as a boy, a Mount Airy man dreams of creating a haven for today’s foster kids…He thinks about his own boyhood. About all the love and attention he never got from his own parents. All the abuse - sexual, physical, mental - he says he suffered during his 16 years in Philadelphia’s foster care system. He shuts his eyes and sees himself as a little boy, dragging a trash bag full of clothes from one foster home to the next and later being forced to perform oral sex in exchange for food.