Thirty-five years ago, Kelly Alsobrook didn’t even consider going to the police after being brutalized in a gang rape.
Alsobrook was living a life of forced prostitution. She worried she would be arrested; she was even more fearful of the reaction of her trafficker, whose punishments included severe beatings, withholding food and water, and forcing her to stay out longer, even after she had met her daily quota, she said.
“I couldn’t go to police because their answer usually is, ‘Well, isn’t that an occupational hazard?'” Alsobrook, now 56, said Tuesday. “Even if you see another victim being beaten, or whatever, it was the same answer. And then there were the repercussions from the trafficker.”
Alsobrook is among the advocates urging Tennessee lawmakers to enact protections she never had: a bill, introduced this year, that would prevent victims of trafficking from arrest on prostitution charges or simply reporting a crime.
Introduced by Sen. Page Walley, R-Savannah, and Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, the so-called Tennessee Safe Crime Reporting Law also seeks to increase criminal penalties for those patronizing prostitutes.