Local home serves as haven to former prostitutes

When Abby was a senior in high school, she met a man named "Jerry" who promised her a career in modeling. After years with a foster family, he gave her the one thing she needed: attention.

"He told me everything I've always wanted to hear from everyone my whole life," Abby said. "He told me that I was beautiful."

Abby, now 22, later learned that for three years "Jerry" led her though a life of drugs, alcohol and sex trafficking - and she doesn't remember any of it. She is now living at a house near the University District for women with similar stories, called Rahab's Hideaway.

"Human trafficking involves using force, fraud or coercion to induce someone to conduct a commercial sex act or to perform labor. If the victim is under age 18, force, fraud, or coercion do not need to accompany the inducement for a commercial sex act," according to a 2007 report from RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization.

MATT CARISSIMI/THE LANTERN Marlene Carson, founder of Rahab's Hideaway, and Emily Woodring, a colleague of Marlene's, clean up the kitchen at the house on Wednesday, May 20. Rahab's Hideaway serves as a safe-house for victims of prostitution and sex trafficking.

"Sex trafficking is a problem in Ohio," said Marlene Carson, founder of Rahab's Hideaway. "I've talked to girls out there, and those into it have usually been into it for years. Some are trafficked right from their houses here in Columbus."

According to the RAND report, there were at least 15 cases of human trafficking in Toledo and Columbus from January 2003 through June 2006. The 10 trafficking cases in Toledo all involved child prostitution while the five cases in Columbus involved forced labor of noncitizens. The RAND report also cited Toledo as a major hub for human trafficking.

"The incidence of human trafficking appears small compared to other crimes. Still, we know relatively little about it," said Jeremy Wilson, the study's lead author and a behavioral scientist at RAND, in the report.

Rahab's Hideaway opened in October 2008 and has offered shelter to between nine and 12 girls since; four girls live in the house now. The foundation also aids about 15 victims who do not live in the house. All of the furniture in the house was donated and decorated by the Columbus Real Estate Staging Association. The funding for the foundation comes from private donations from area churches, although Carson held a fundraiser in January and is planning another for September.

Girls can stay in the house for up to two years and are provided with counseling. The girls also participate in group therapy and anger management, and can take classes on cooking, knitting and jewelry. Outside help is provided by counselors through Family Focus in Columbus and Columbus Area Mental Health, as well as interns of social work at Ohio State and members of OSU fraternities and sororities.

During their first 90 days at the house, girls are subject to strict rules, including supervised outings, supervised computer access and designated "lights out" and "wake-up" times. Girls have no contact with family for the first 30 days and no contact with friends or cellular phones at all during their stay. After 90 days, girls can receive 24-hour passes outside the house.

"The girls absolutely form a bond while in the house," Carson said. "They develop friendships, and even more than that, a kind of sister-survivor bond."

With two girls in the house already set to attend classes at Columbus State Community College in the fall, the goal for the girls is "to be more productive citizens and to restore their lives," Carson said.

Carson, a sex trafficking victim herself, was taken from her school in the North Side of Columbus at the age of 15, traveling all over the country as part of an escort service. She was separated from her parents for eight months with no contact, and thrown into prostitution as a virgin.

"I stayed with him because of the fear," Carson said. "I didn't tell anyone, because he told us he'd kill us all if we told anyone. It was scary, like I'd totally lost myself. I became what he said I was."

Because she wasn't exposed to drugs or alcohol, she was "conscious of what was really going on," and after so long, it "became a way of life."

Although the man who abducted her ended up in jail, Carson soon fell in with another sex trafficker. Carson remained a sex trafficking victim from the time she was 15 until her mid 30s.

"I was under psychological torture," Carson said. "No one can understand the mind of a prostitute. The average person can't wrap their mind around the logic behind it."

Abby's life with prostitution began at a young age, as her mother was a prostitute and suffered from mental illnesses. When Abby was 10 years old, her mother brought a 16-year-old boy to the house. When he began to sexually abuse her, she "wasn't scared, didn't know it was wrong, and thought it was a 'fun thing' grown-ups did," Abby said.

"I thought it was normal," she said. "My mom put up a world where that wasn't scary but it was exciting."

After telling school authorities about her home life, Abby was adopted into foster care, where she lived from age 13 to 18. It was there that she first began dressing provocatively, she says.

"No matter how good I was, no one noticed, so I became the opposite," she said. "Everything was skin-tight with lots of make-up because I was in control of this. I would have become a prostitute at that age willingly because I had no authority in my life."