HUMAN TRAFFICKING
House Bill 4914
Sponsor: Rep. Dudley Spade
House Bill 4915
Sponsor: Rep. Joel Sheltrown
House Bill 4916
Sponsor: Rep. Marc Corriveau
House Bill 4917
Sponsor: Rep. Mary Valentine
House Bill 4918
Sponsor: Rep. Robert Dean
Committee: Judiciary
Complete to 2-19-08
A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILLS 4914-4918 AS INTRODUCED 6-13-07
Public Act 162 of 2006 added Chapter 67A (Human Trafficking) to the Michigan Penal Code to prohibit a person from knowingly subjecting or attempting to subject another person to forced labor or services by certain actions. The bills would amend various acts to create new crimes regarding human trafficking, include human trafficking as a predicate offense for a crime of racketeering, and require persons convicted of a human trafficking offense to pay restitution to victims. House Bills 4915-4917 are tie-barred to House Bill 4914, meaning that none of those bills could take effect unless House Bill 4914 was also enacted. Specifically, the bills would do the following:
House Bill 4914
The bill would add a new section to Chapter 67A (Human Trafficking) of the Michigan Penal Code (MCL 750.462j) to prohibit two additional actions as crimes of human trafficking, establish penalties, require certain payments to a victim by a person convicted under the bill, and define terms. Under the bill, a person would be prohibited from:
· Knowingly providing or obtaining the labor or services of another person by force, fraud, or coercion. "Force" would include, but not be limited to, physical violence or actual physical restraint or confinement, but injury would be required. "Fraud" would include a false or deceptive offer of employment or marriage. "Coercion" would include, but not be limited to, threats of harm or physical restraint or schemes intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in harm to or physical restraint against any person; confiscation of documents regardless of whether the documents were fraudulent or fraudulently obtained; and the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal system (including threats of arrest or deportation).
· Knowingly recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for labor or services for the purpose of holding that person in involuntary servitude or debt bondage. "Debt bondage" would include, but not be limited to, the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for a debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed were not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services were not respectively limited and defined. "Involuntary servitude" would include a state of providing labor or services entered into or maintained by means of force, fraud, or coercion.
Both of the violations described above would be a felony punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment and/or a fine of not more than $10,000.
If the violation involved the forced labor or trafficking of a minor (under 18 years of age) or a commercial sex act, the violation would be punishable by imprisonment of up to 20 years and/or a fine of not more than $20,000. A "commercial sex act" would mean any act of sexual penetration or sexual contact or any sexually explicit performance for which anything of value was given to, or was received by, any person or a violation involving any child sexually abusive activity or material.
If the violation involved death or serious physical harm to any person, the maximum term would be imprisonment for life or any terms of years and/or a fine of not more than $50,000. "Serious physical harm" would be defined to mean any physical injury that seriously impaired a person's health or physical well-being, including (but not limited to) brain damage, skull or bone fracture, subdural hemorrhage or hematoma, a dislocation or sprain, internal injury, poisoning, a burn or scald, or a severe cut.
The bill would not prohibit a person from being charged with, convicted of, or punished for any other violation of law arising out of the same transaction as the violation of the bill. A sentence could be ordered to be served consecutively to (instead of concurrently with) a term of imprisonment imposed for the commission of any other crime, including one arising out of the same transaction as the violation of the bill.
Further, a court would have to order a person convicted of violating the bill to pay restitution to the victim. In addition, the court would also have to order the person to pay one of the following to the victim:
· The fair and prevailing wage paid to those lawfully employed in that industry for that work, if the victim had not been paid for his or her work.
· If the victim had been paid at a rate below that of the prevailing wage paid those lawfully employed in that industry, the difference between the wages paid to the victim and that fair and prevailing wage.
House Bill 4915
The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure (MCL 777.16w) to include the violations proposed by House Bill 4914 in the sentencing guidelines as follows:
Violation |
Felony Class & Category |
Statutory Maximum Sentence |
Providing labor or services of another person by force, fraud, or coercion |
D - Person |
10 years |
Providing labor or services of minor by force, fraud, or coercion |
B - Person |
20 years |
Providing labor or services of another person by force, fraud, or coercion causing death or serious physical harm |
A - Person |
Life |
Recruiting or transporting person for labor or services |
D - Person |
10 years |
Recruiting or transporting minor for labor or services |
B - Person |
20 years |
Recruiting or transporting person for labor or services causing death or serious physical harm |
A- Person |
Life |
House Bill 4916
The bill would amend Chapter 25A of the Michigan Penal Code, entitled "Criminal Enterprises" (MCL 750.159g). Under the code, racketeering is defined as committing, attempting to commit, conspiring to commit, or aiding or abetting, soliciting, coercing, or intimidating a person to commit an offense for financial gain that includes any of the listed criminal acts. The bill would amend this list to include a violation of Chapter 67A (Human Trafficking), as well as a violation of Section 411u as proposed by Senate Bill 291. Senate Bill 291 would establish a felony penalty for an individual who committed or attempted to commit a felony for which his or her gang membership or association provided the motive, means, or opportunity.
The bill would also delete a reference to Section 17766a of the Public Health Code concerning androgenic anabolic steroids. The section was repealed by Public Act 236 of 2001 because departmental rules already include certain androgenic anabolic steroids as a Schedule 3 drug and exclude other ones.
House Bill 4917
The bill would amend the Revised Judicature Act (MCL 600.4701). The provision defines "crime" to mean committing, attempting to commit, conspiring to commit, or soliciting another person to commit any of the listed offenses in connection with which the forfeiture of property is sought. The bill would include in the list of offenses a violation of Chapter 67A (Human Trafficking) and Chapter 83A (Terrorism).
House Bill 4918
The bill would add a new section to the William Van Regenmorter Crime Victim's Rights Act (MCL 780.766b) to require a court, when sentencing a defendant convicted of a violation of Chapter 67A of the Michigan Penal Code (Human Trafficking), to order restitution for the full amount of loss suffered by the victim. In addition, the following costs would also be imposed upon the defendant:
· The victim's lost income, calculated as specified in the bill.
· The cost of transportation, temporary housing, and child care expenses incurred by the victim because of the offense.
· Attorney fees and other costs and expenses incurred by the victim because of the offense, including, but not limited to, costs and expenses relating to assisting the investigation of the offense and for attendance at related court proceedings that would include wages lost, child care, transportation, and parking.
· Any other loss suffered by the victim as a proximate result of the offense.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The bills' fiscal impact on state and local correctional systems would depend on how they affected the number and severity of felony sentences. To the extent that more felons were sentenced to prison or were sentenced to prison for longer terms, the bills could increase state costs of prison incarceration; the average appropriated cost per prisoner is approximately $32,000 per year, a figure that includes various fixed administrative and operational costs. To the extent that more offenders were sentenced to probation, the state could incur increased supervision costs; the average annual cost of parole and probation supervision is about $2,000 per supervised offender. Any increase in jail sentences would be borne by the affected counties; jail costs vary by county. Any increase in penal fine collections could benefit local libraries, which are the constitutionally-designated recipients of such revenues.
Legislative Analyst: Susan Stutzky
Fiscal Analyst: Marilyn Peterson
■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.