Douglas County leaders celebrate new Colorado law increasing penalties for child sex trafficking

A landmark anti-trafficking bill made it over the finish line to become law in Colorado on Wednesday.

Before, someone soliciting sex from a child could avoid prison time and get off with probation. Now there's a mandatory minimum year-long jail sentence.

"It is like fish in a barrel, no matter where you go," said Jenelle Goodrich, founder of nonprofit From Silenced to Saved.

As an advocate for trafficked children, Goodrich sees the unthinkable every day.

"Something that happens every single day," Goodrich said.

She believes that the way to crack down on child trafficking is to go after the buyers -- those paying for sex with children.

"It is a supply and demand situation," Goodrich said. "Clearly there is a demand for sex with children, and until we start addressing that demand, then we're not actually going to put a dent in human trafficking."

So who are these buyers? Goodrich and prosecutors say the most common profile is a middle-aged, affluent White man who is married with children.

"The majority of the demand side is coming out of influential communities, such as Douglas County, which is why it is so imperative and important that they were the ones to step up to say 'We understand that the majority of that buy side is coming from us, and we need to make sure that we're addressing that,' because they are maybe not victimizing as many Douglas County kids, but they are definitely victimizing kids in the state of Colorado," said Goodrich.

"Primarily in Douglas County, it starts online, and that's kind of where it happens, and it does involve primarily affluent White middle-aged men with kids," said Abby Hegarty, senior deputy district attorney in the 23rd Judicial District, who focuses on trafficking and internet crimes against children.

Hegarty recommends parents create a relationship where kids feel safe coming to them, watch their children's online activity closely and teach children not to add strangers online.

"The vast majority of my cases involve children adding strangers on Snapchat and on Roblox, and that's kind of how these cases come about," Hegarty said.

A recent sting in Douglas County showcases the reality of how common these cases are.

"Law enforcement posted online as a 14-year-old girl looking to sell sex, and we got hundreds of messages from different individuals. Eventually, five men actually showed up to this location in Douglas County, believing that they were going to have sex with a minor," Hegarty said.

Some of those men were charged with soliciting for child prostitution (now "Soliciting for commercial sexual activity with a child"), a charge that often ended in probation.

Until now. A bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis Wednesday now mandates incarceration for that charge.

Supporters say the bill's initial fiscal note projected it would cost more than $17 million over five years to accommodate the additional offenders solely in the Department of Corrections.

"It would work, we would catch Johns, but then there's no place to put them," said Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon. "I called the [Douglas County] sheriff, and the sheriff said, 'we have room, we have room, we can get the bad guys, and we'll keep them here if we need to.' So that got integrated and amended into the bill, dropped the fiscal note down to zero."

The fiscal note was ultimately reduced to zero after lawmakers changed the bill to allow probation while requiring 364 days in county jail.

The bipartisan bill requires prison sentences for several other offenses involving the commercial sexual exploitation of children, including pandering, procurement, pimping, internet luring for commercial sexual activity and other related crimes.

"On issues like this there isn't a right or a left. There isn't a progressive or a conservative. There are people that came together to protect these kids," said 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler.

The bill also updates language that advocates say did not position children as victims.

"Prior to 10:45 this morning, the legal language was prostituted child," Goodrich said. "Commercial sexual activity with a minor is what it should be called, so it puts that ownership on the buyers and on the sellers, and not on the victim that is being purchased and sold."

"Incarceration works, and I'm glad we're at a place now where we can say that for the most vulnerable in our community, but if you prey upon them, the likelihood of you being held accountable behind bars has gone way, way up," Brauchler said.

Goodrich hopes changes to hold buyers of child exploitation accountable happen at a national level.

"We actually introduced this same type of carve out for solicitation and pandering of a minor at the federal level last week in DC, and under Title 18, there is some confusion if the buy side could be charged, and this is going to make it crystal clear that they can. Everything in the Epstein files is all about the buyers, and they are that profile that I talked about, middle-aged White men with influential means, married with a few children, and that is our target and our focus here to make sure that that power and control and adult men are held accountable for what they do to minor children," Goodrich said.