Posted: January 31st, 2014 | by Yuval Sheer

On January 13, Governor Cuomo signed into law an expansion of Safe Harbor protections to 16- and 17- year-olds arrested for prostitution in New York. Pursuant to this legislation, the criminal court will be able to connect these youth to services currently available in the Family Court. Furthermore, they will no longer be exposed to the lifetime stigma of a criminal record stemming from that arrest.

We applaud the Governor for signing this legislation, and are grateful to Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and NYS Senator Andrew Lanza for their tireless efforts to move this legislation forward.

It has been an honor to join Sanctuary for Families and the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition in their advocacy efforts for this bill, and we will continue working with them to protect sexually exploited children in our state.

Last year, Assemblywoman Paulin, Dorchen Leidholt of Sanctuary for Families, and our Executive Director, Michael Corriero, spoke in support of this legislation on the program Capital Tonight. You may view the video of the interview below:

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