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 LANTERNMarlene 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.”
Abby’s foster parents allowed her to see a “modeling agent” during her senior year of high school, and Abby continued to see him every night for years.
“Records show he drugged me, but I don’t remember that,” Abby said. “I don’t remember being shot up or drinking alcohol, but he was doing that to me.”
By the time she was 21, Abby was seeing “Jerry” every night and dancing at exotic nightclubs, as well as prostituting herself. “Jerry” was drugging her every night, selling her for $200 for 15 minutes and taking all of the money.
Abby was eventually discovered by police and was taken to a shelter in Lexington, Ky. She came to Rahab’s Hideaway Thanksgiving last year.
Four residents in the house have returned to their lives of prostitution and sex trafficking, Carson said.
“We haven’t been open long enough to have a success case yet,” she said. “But this is a program that is very hard to keep stable.”
Carson and Rahab’s Hideaway work with the Transition Assistance Program in Columbus, part of a diversion program for prostitution developed by City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer. In the three-day program held once a month, women who have been charged with a prostitution misdemeanor and want to leave the lifestyle meet with agencies and organizations in the community.
“Pfeiffer had the view that women participating in prostitution have underlying issues, whether it is drug addictions, sexual molestation histories or being trafficked into it,” said City Assistant Attorney to Pfeiffer, Natalia Harris. “The idea was to try to do something that would manage or offer assistance in the sense that these women are also victims. We want to also do something to move them out of that lifestyle while prosecuting them for the crime.”
Although Columbus officials do not refer women to places such as Rahab’s Hideaway, beginning in January, organizations such as Rahab’s Hideaway will share a partnership with the City Attorney’s Office to talk to women about resources available to them.
Because the program has been running for six months, Harris said
Pfeiffer’s office is in the process of re-evaluating the program and considering what changes need to be made. The office is also planning to partner with other government agencies to develop more intensive programs for prostitution.
“Hideaway helped me a lot, but it has triggered me a lot too,” Abby said. “Recovery isn’t easy. I’m so messed up mentally and it must be by the grace of God that I’m here. Every night I have to tell myself to not go back out there. Every night Marlene used to have to talk me back into taking my suitcase into my room.”
Abby has completed the fourth of 12 steps to recovery, where one shares her deepest thoughts about her experience with another person, and will be attending CSCC in the fall.
Rahab’s Hideaway will be holding volunteer training June 27 at New Life Gahanna church, and those interested are encouraged to visit rahabshideaway.org.
Caitlin O’Neil can be reached at [email protected].
