Kentucky may seem like an unlikely breeding ground for human traffickers, but the problem is growing nationally and one area college is hoping a conference will shine a light on the issue.
Jury selection began Thursday in the trial of Anthony and Kathy Hart, a Madison County couple accused of trafficking their young daughters in Richmond, KY. It’s cases like these that Regan Lookadoo, organizer of a conference on human trafficking at Georgetown College, hopes will show Kentuckians it’s not just a problem overseas.
"For our state, we're vulnerable because we're a poor state. We have poverty issues of neglect," says Lookadoo.
Combine those problems with a high level of prescription drug abuse and Lookadoo says that’s a recipe for more incidences of human trafficking down the road. The state legislature passed a law in 2007 outlawing human trafficking. So far 67 cases have been documented, 12 people have been indicted, but only a handful have been convicted. The conference on human trafficking at Georgetown College begins today and is free to any student or teacher.
