Melissa Gira Grant

Andrew Mitchell, a former officer in Ohio who was recently indicted on charges he kidnapped women and forced them to have sex for their freedom, will soon face a grand jury for killing Donna Dalton during a prostitution arrest.

A new coalition of people in the sex trades wants New York to become the first state to fully decriminalize their work.

Advocates say the case hasn’t been handled fairly and there’s little hope for justice.

In a wide-ranging interview, Boudin, a progressive reform candidate, told The Appeal he wants to redefine ‘public safety’ to encompass the rights of both victims and defendants.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam just granted clemency to Brown, who was forced to trade sex for money, but Ohio’s governor declined this week to do the same for Martin.

The president is drawing on two decades of bipartisan support for crackdowns on traffickers to secure support for his agenda at the border.

A ban on dancers under 21 raises questions on the growing role of the state’s Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control in policing clubs.

Everyone agrees the jail at 850 Bryant should close, but it’s not yet clear what would happen to those locked inside.

The landmark decision could help other transgender people in jails and prisons who have been denied access to hormone treatment, a violation of their constitutional rights.

The departing governor has chosen to pardon immigrants whose past criminal offenses put them in danger of deportation.

In 2016, the office said it dismissed such cases, but Legal Aid says that’s not what’s happening.

Supporters hope the passage of Prop C may herald a more compassionate—and effective—approach.

Victims’ rights campaign spent more than $70 million nationwide, with more than half of that spent in Florida.

Advocates say these charges endanger sex workers and urge the police to stop using them.

Experts say playing up the risk of sex trafficking fuels anxiety and criminalization.

The women, who were arrested alongside Stormy Daniels in July, allege that they were smeared by arresting officers, but they’re just the latest to raise concerns.

Two new reports challenge the efficacy and ethics of prostitution diversion programs in New York City and nationwide.

Rep. John Becker doubles down on his recent comments about the tasing of an 11-year-old for allegedly shoplifting.

State Senate candidate Julia Salazar explains how sex workers’ rights is a key part of reforming criminal justice in New York.

Community outrage mounts over Officer Andrew Mitchell’s killing of Dalton during an attempted prostitution arrest.

Local advocates are struggling with a new immigration memo that makes it more difficult to support these survivors.

Human rights groups, sex worker rights activists, a digital archive and others say they are already facing censorship.

As anticipated, district attorney finds no misconduct in raid that led to Yang Song’s fatal fall.

Surveillance video sheds some light on the police raid that killed Yang Song last year while, advocates say, the raids continue.

As part of International Whores’ Day, hundreds gathered in New York City to protest new anti-sex work laws.

From local charities, to the editorial pages, to city politicians, New Orleans strip clubs were blamed for human trafficking, leading to abusive police raids – harming the dancers they claimed they were protecting, and pushing the dancers to fight back.

This week, the Senate is expected to vote on a bill that could shutter websites that host sex-for-sale ads. The bill, known as SESTA — the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act — has been described by its supporters as a way to provide justice to victims of human trafficking by making it easier for them to file civil suits against the sites. However, a growing coalition of survivors of trafficking, sex workers, and women’s and LGBT rights groups oppose SESTA, saying it will endanger those it is meant to help.

The New Orleans Police Department, the Louisiana State Police, and the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) have raided eight French Quarter strip clubs in the past 10 days. At a Monday press conference, both NOPD and ATC claimed the raids were the result of a multi-month, ongoing “human trafficking” operation, yet they also admitted they made no trafficking arrests, nor did they identify any victims of trafficking.

Yang Song fell four stories onto a sidewalk in Flushing, Queens on the night of November 25th. An officer with the New York City Police Department accompanied her, unconscious, to New York Presbyterian Hospital where doctors placed her on a respirator. They worked for hours: the 35 units of blood they transfused did not take, given the severity of her injuries from the thirty foot fall.