Two Child Survivors of Sex Trafficking Are Among Many Arrested and Incarcerated Rather Than Protected
by Andrea Powell, co-creator and executive director, Karana Rising
As court begins, Jessica squints her eyes into the jail holding room camera nervously. She fidgets in her state-issued orange jumpsuit while her attorney and the prosecutor settle into their chairs. She makes “heart hands” at her mom while her internet flickers in and out. I make “heart hands” back hoping the prosecutor will not see it. While the attorneys are there in person, expert witnesses and advocates like me are dialing in virtually.
Jessica is 19 years old and she’s been in Bell County prison in Killeen, Texas for more than a year along with her little brother, Jordan. Jessica’s pre-trial will set the stage for how her defense unfolds. In a previous trial, the prosecution referred to Jessica as a teen prostitute who was a danger to society. Her bond is set at $1,500,000. Our attempts to find the money for bail or to move her and her brother to secure treatment programs rather than jail have thus far proven to be unsuccessful.
In June 2020, Jessica and Jordan along with their alleged female trafficker, Breez Collier, were arrested and ultimately charged with capital murder. Video footage shows former army technician Shareef Raekwon Alibarnett waiting in his car for Breez to arrive with Jessica and Jordan. According to text messages, Breez was arranging to rob him and potentially sell Jessica to him. When Breez arrived to commence the sale of Jessica and alleged rob Shareef, she arrived with two adult men. Questions around whether or not Breez intended to rob Shareef remain and whether or not she was acting alone, or under the control of another person also exist.
As a survivor of child sex trafficking who was sold across Colorado, California, and Texas, Jessica is familiar with courts, FBI raids and threats of violence by multiple traffickers. In California, her gang-affiliated trafficker attempted to burn her alive in a car. Efforts by Jessica’s mom to get her therapy fell flat as Jessica withdrew in her depression that likely began during the sexual abuse that she endured before she was a preteen. It most certainly played a role later in her vulnerability to her first trafficker at age 14.
After returning home, Jessica tried to leave all that trauma behind her. However, she was soon being lured by her new adult female friend back into that life. When Jessica met Breez in early 2020, she was desperate for a friend and to be normal again. She felt Breez understood her. By manipulating Jessica’s past history of sexual exploitation and substance abuse, Breez was allegedly able to sell and exploit her for her own profit. Soon, Breez also had 14-year-old Jordan ensnared with false promises of love and sex. Text messages reveal that if he tried to resist her demands, she would threaten to end the relationship or harm him.
In her first letter to Karana Rising in February of this year, Jessica wrote, “I believe what I’m going through will give me a chance to change, grow and help others.” If convicted to life in prison without parole, Jessica’s hopes will be much harder to achieve if not impossible.
Jessica and Jordan are two of many survivors across the country whose own trafficking led to their arrest and prosecution. Karana Rising’s own Survivor Justice Initiative team first learned of their plight in December 2020. Law enforcement’s ability to discern whether or not the person they have arrested is a victim of trafficking often depends on their ability to identify human trafficking as a crime. Texas is renowned for progressive efforts, such as a recent survivor relief fund, to ensure victims are found and traffickers are held accountable but that does not always reach victims like Jessica and Jordan.
In California, then 14-year-old Jessica was arrested three times for charges of prostitution, holding of narcotics she was forced by her trafficker to sell, and robbery. Her own trafficker would bond her out of jail and then drug and sell her again. Eventually, an LA detective gained her trust and was able to engage the FBI in recovering her.
Her mom reports after returning home, Jessica would never look down out of fear of being attacked. She would wake her mother up during the night with screams from nightmares and was so malnourished that she was wearing her 8-year-old sister’s clothing.
After returning home in 2018, Jessica’s past followed her home. It is common for a trafficked child to be conditioned to feel like their exploitation is or was normal. “I didn’t feel worthy of anyone being nice to me,” says Jessica in another letter.
When an older neighbor learned of her past exploitation, she and two men attempted to take Jessica. Amy fought back. She called the police 26 times while Jessica was repeatedly taken by the neighbors for what Amy feared to be sexual exploitation. Eventually, the neighbors became violent against Amy, including placing her in a chokehold and caving in part of her skull. The next time that Jessica returned home with them, Amy called the police. Jordan, having just been dropped off his school bus, jumped in and attempted to help his mom escape the men.
Most victims of human trafficking have experienced extreme poverty and homelessness prior to and during their own trafficking so they cannot afford to hire a well-trained or well-resourced attorney. This leaves them with being assigned a public defender by the court. Public defenders, who are also paid by the court, also may or may not have the training to truly help their client either. That leaves some victims like Jessica and Jordan with little advocacy or support. Pro bono attorney efforts are coming together nationally but capital murder is a serious charge requiring an all hands on deck effort that both teens deserve.
In their case, their own trafficking has yet to be investigated despite clear text messages and communications between Breez, Jessica, and Jordan that make a strong case for their exploitation. As of September 9th of this year, after more than a year in jail, there is now a potential investigation into the sexual abuse Jordan endured at the hands of Breez. This is a long overdue start to justice for Jordan.
Forced Criminality is a tactic traffickers use to control their victims
The reason that sex trafficking takes place is that someone or a group of people want to take advantage of another person for profit. It’s all about the money, not the sex. So, sex traffickers will use their victims not just for sex but also to commit other crimes that will further their profit and also ensure their victims are trapped in their criminal web, and the abuse continues because victims don’t feel safe coming forward.
In the case of another incarcerated child sex trafficking survivor in Georgia, Tiffany Simpson, the trafficker stabbed and threatened to kill her unborn baby if she tried to run. He then forced her to help him recruit another 13-year-old victim. Law enforcement did not identify her as a victim of trafficking or investigate her own exploitation either. This year marks 10 years in jail for Tiffany while we advocate for her freedom post-conviction.
According to text messages, Breez is alleged to have intended to use Jordan and Jessica to facilitate the robbery of the sex buyer who had contacted her off her online sexual advertisement.
Prosecutors and law enforcement may see this as evidence of the teen siblings’ criminal intentions and culpability, however, it could be evidence of their exploitation.
More than half of the survivors I have worked with experience arrests prior to or even after being identified as victims of human trafficking. They are often arrested for these crimes and their victimization is never identified or investigated. Their criminal record makes it harder to find employment, housing, or even attend college.
This tactic of forced criminality boxes in a traffickers victim which makes them more dependent on them. It’s a form of insurance for traffickers who want to keep their victims under their control. It also means the next time their victim is in contact with law enforcement, they are more likely to be treated as a criminal and their trafficking or abuse will not be believed.
I have worked with and alongside more than 1,500 survivors and approximately half experienced arrest as part of their trafficking. The majority of these arrests were prostitution-related (even if they were minors identified as victims of trafficking the very law enforcement who arrested them). Charges of robbery, loitering, trespassing or even running away are common, too. In 2019, there were 696,620 children arrested according to data from the Department of Justice, of which 290 children were arrested for prostitution.
Traffickers tell their victims if they try to run or speak out, the police will arrest them. They say that they will treat them as criminals and not believe them. This has proven true in the case of Jessica and Jordan Hampton.
Boys Can Be Sex Trafficked, Too
Male survivors of sex trafficking, like Jordan, face unique challenges in being identified as victims. Boys who are victims of trafficking are often disbelieved and even ridiculed. Misconceptions that boys can’t be raped or that “boys will be boys” leads to not just the general public, but also law enforcement, not identifying boys experiencing trafficking. To be viewed as vulnerable or sexually violated is often so terrifying that boys themselves may not see their own exploitation as sex trafficking. They may instead claim that they are doing what they want to do or deny the exploitation. They may even become hyper-sexualized to protect their status of being a “man.” However, boys are estimated to be 45% of all child victims of sex trafficking in the United States.
Jordan was 14 when he first met his trafficker, 24-year-old Breez Collier. Like girls, boys can be trafficked and bought by both men and women. Also like girls, boys often face prior neglect, abuse, or trauma prior to being trafficking. At 12, Jordan searched for his missing sex-trafficked older sister, Jessica. He looked online often to see if he could find her and bring her home, his mother said. After two years of being missing, Jessica returned home traumatized from being victimized by traffickers who sold her across Colorado to California.
“Jordan felt that he had to watch out for his sisters and I after Jessica came home. He followed Jessica everywhere. He even followed me around the house as if I could disappear, too,” says Amy Cage, Jordan and Jessica’s mother.
Furthermore, trafficked boys are often seen as the perpetrators rather than victims even if their victimization is clear to law enforcement. Many trafficking prevention programs created by experts in the field focus on educating boys on how to not become sex buyers or pimps while telling girls how to stay safe from exploitation. Trafficking impacts both boys and girls and prevention should focus on that reality rather than the societal norms that silence boys from speaking out or getting help.
Girls Can Be Traffickers, but Often There is More to the Story
Breez was 24 years old when she was charged with capital murder. According to community accounts, she has been involved in commercial sex for years. Her online escort advertisements were how Shareff found her. While Breez is alleged to have recruited and trafficked Jessica and Jordan, her own potential exploitation deserves a deeper look if we are to advance holistic survivor justice.
Recent media reports around the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s associate, make it clear that traffickers can be women. They are better able to build a bond of trust as a mother or big sister figure. Furthermore, the attitude that women can be trusted more than men to help in times of distress gives potential young victims the sense that they can trust women. This can lead to their exploitation.
Many traffickers will create a new dynamic as they begin to seek out new victims and increase their revenue. This leads to what is known as the ‘victim-offender’ scenario where a trafficker will use a female (or male) victim and force them to recruit, control, or manage new victims. In some cases, these victims feel this is their only way to stay safe or stay in the “good graces” of their trafficker with whom they may believe there is a romantic or familial relationship.
Intergenerational trauma can lead to trafficking, too.
Many survivors live with single parents, in particular moms, who themselves are struggling to survive. As a single mom, Amy struggled to make ends meet for herself and her children. “I didn’t have the coping skills or the support to understand how to get Jessica the help she needed and I didn’t feel like I was being listened to,” says Amy who claims no one came to help her figure out how to support her extremely traumatized daughter or understand the potential future risks she would face.
As Jessica retreated further and further into her relationship with Breez, Amy tried to make her stay away from the drugs that she was once forced to use by her sexually abusive uncle. Once Jordan was also ensnared by Breez and began leaving home, Amy made 26 police reports. “I’ve seen and experienced so much abuse as a woman that it’s sometimes hard to know what is normal anymore. I was so traumatized watching my children suffer. I never thought this would happen to them,” says Amy the evening after Jessica’s first pretrial court date.
According to the Ace Study, a Center for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente mid-1990s study, adverse childhood experiences negatively impact adult mental and physical health. These include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, abandonment, witnessing violence against a family member, mental illness, bullying, and even divorce/parental separation. The higher the ACE score, the more likely a child will grow up to suffer negative and even life-debilitating results. As Amy spoke, some of her past traumas sounded sadly similar to some of those of Jessica and Jordan.
Jail Is Not A Safe Home, Safe Homes Are
Juvenile detention facilities are often used as a form of a safe home or treatment center. Many law enforcement with whom I have worked did not want to arrest or send the child they suspect or know is a victim of human trafficking to detention or jail. However, they were faced with a dilemma. They could simply let the child go or send the child to a non-secure youth home and worry that the child will run right back into the trafficking situation or just run in general. Or, they can arrest them and send them to a locked detention facility where they will be reportedly “safe” from their trafficker for a time. This is a very real dilemma that as an advocate, I appreciate.
Jordan’s mother has recently filed a federal lawsuit against the juvenile detention facility in Killeen where Jordan has been held for the last 16 months. Allegations against staff include choking, excessive isolation, being punched by guards while handcuffed, denial of blankets, and threatening behavior. According to Amy, Jordan has withdrawn and become increasingly angry and depressed while he awaits trial. She fears what these last months have done to Jordan and if he will ever go back to being the joking, carefree, football-loving kid he once was before he was sex trafficked and locked up.
Safe Homes Need to Actually Be Safe and Trauma-Informed
Many child victims of sex trafficking have been abused or neglected by their parents or caretakers prior to trafficking and do not trust adults. Or, they have endured abuse by another adult they should have been able to trust for safety and love. They are used to having to run to survive. Their response, when placed in a group home or program with other traumatized kids and controlling adults who are effectively strangers, is to run. The one thing that will ensure they stay is having an adult who they trust show that they care for them. However, under-funding, lack of survivor-led or informed training or leadership, and the compounded traumas of all those residing in the home can create an environment of mistrust or even abuse.
After being recovered by the FBI in a Colorado operation to find trafficked children, authorities convinced Amy that Jessica would be safe in a shelter known for helping trafficked girls like Jessica. However, in this group home Jessica met another teen girl who convinced her to run away with her into Los Angeles. Jessica’s trafficking soon continued, this time by multiple gang members. Jessica was sold on Backpage.com and across the city before eventually being recovered.
Even in a truly therapeutic and safe residential program, the trauma many survivors have endured creates a constant state of heightened stress that triggers what is known as the “flight mode.” They are overwhelmed with cortisol that leads to them feeling they are unsafe and need to run. They may not feel safe or supported even in the best of circumstances. Survivors often must work to overcome that fear while also rebuilding their lives after trafficking; this task is daunting at best. It is much harder when, as a child, you simply do not know who to trust anymore.
Jessica and Jordan Hampton’s plight might have been avoided had Jessica received the care she needed in the first place after being trafficked. “I didn’t have anyone to tell me what to expect or how to deal with the anger and frustration I felt as a parent watching my child suffer,” Amy says through the sobs I can hear over the phone. Trafficking can break further already broken homes and so helping the entire family seek healing and justice is critical to recovery.
As Jessica and Jordan’s trials are underway, we will likely face misunderstandings that will make it all the harder for them to be free. Tiffany Simpson, still incarcerated herself is proof that even if you arrest and incarcerate survivors, they can still advocate and help others; such as Jessica dreams to do. Her short film shows her rise and fall into trafficking and the lack of protection, even from her own attorney, she endured before being sentenced to 30 years in prison after being arrested at age 17 along with her 34 year old trafficker.. When asked why she thought she was trafficked as a teen, Tiffany replies that it was a “lack of love.” Now, as a Karana Rising survivor leader, she’s an advocate for Jessica, Jordan, and survivors like them.
“I want to tell my mom that I’m so sorry. I hope she knows I love her and I hope someday I can show her how much she truly means to me,” writes Jessica in her last letter to me. I wrote her back promising I would tell her. Only, Amy replies that she already knows. She also knows she is going to have to fight like never before for Jessica and Jordan to ever have a chance at the healing and freedom to be kids that they deserve.
Victims of human trafficking should not be in jail as a result of their own trafficking, yet it is happening across the country to children like Jessica and Jordan.
To learn more: www.freetiffany.org
To support Jessica and Jordan: www.change.org/freejessicaandjordan
*This post was written using both media reports, direct experience of the author and private sources who wish to remain anonymous. All attempts in verifying facts have been made while also being mindful of the trauma that sharing one’s story may have.
