Judge touts safe house for kids ensnared in prostitution

Family Court Judge William Voy on Wednesday was pleading his case again for a better place to send the young girls who appear before him each week on prostitution-related charges.

"We need to do something different with these children," Voy told roughly two dozen county, law enforcement and court officials gathered for his lunchtime presentation at a local golf course. "With a lot of these kids, the only place they ever felt safe and secure was with their pimps. We want to give them a better option."

Voy, who presides over a weekly "teen prostitution court," wants to build a safe house for girls caught up in prostitution. It would serve as an alternative to his current options, which include:

• Keeping them locked in the detention center.

• Sending them to the state reformatory in Caliente, a treatment center for substance abuse or behavioral problems.

• Sending them to a shelter for abused and neglected kids.

The safe house idea is three years in the making and was the brainchild of Voy and others in the juvenile justice world. It would provide the girls with a place that's safe, but not institutional; homey, but with doors that lock from the outside.

It would house eight to 14 girls at a time.

"We all agreed they (the girls) are victims," Voy said. But currently, "the only way to deal with them is in the delinquency system. Otherwise, they are out on the street."

On Wednesday, Voy came armed with a Power Point presentation, pamphlets, renderings for a 7,500-square-foot safe house, and a lot of passion.

"I know we can do so much better for them (the girls)," he said. "It's worth the fight."

Voy announced the creation of a nonprofit foundation to help fund construction of the safe house, called PSEC Nevada Foundation. The PSEC stands for "Protection of Sexually Exploited Children." The foundation's Web site is www.nevadachild.com.

Voy estimates it will cost $2 million to construct and furnish the home. He hopes to raise the money through private donations, and said he already has been pledged a five-acre parcel of Bureau of Land Management land on which to build the facility in the southeastern Las Vegas Valley.

The judge plans to ask Clark County to pay for staffing and operation of the safe house to the tune of about $512,000 a year.

The foundation would provide about $137,000 a year, for a total budget of about $649,000.

Clark County commissioners Susan Brager and Chris Giunchigliani, who attended Voy's presentation, applauded his idea but weren't sure where the money would come from.

"That's the hard part," Brager said. "We need to be cautious in these difficult economic times. The commitment is there, but it can't be funded by just one source."

Giunchigliani said she is afraid the safe house will end up costing more than Voy has planned.

"It's going to come down to finding the money," she said. "Do we need to do something? Yes. But is there a way to move toward this without being as fiscally impacted?"

Both commissioners suggested that Voy approach other municipalities to help pay for the safe house.

But, Voy said, "I need the county to say, 'Yes, we'll do it.' I can't raise any more money at this point unless I have the county's commitment."

The Junior League of Las Vegas and the Nevada Community Foundation have agreed to help Voy raise funds and develop the project.

Shared Hope International, a Virginia-based nonprofit working to prevent sex trafficking and provide support for boys and girls in the industry, recently endorsed the idea.

The nonprofit released a report in March calling Las Vegas a major hub for the sexual trafficking of children and saying the city doesn't have nearly enough services to help them.

"They need therapeutic placement instead of jail," Shared Hope founder and president Linda Smith said at the time.

She supported Voy's vision and said if such a safe house were built, it could serve as a model for communities across the nation.

Voy said about 300 girls appeared in his courtroom between September 2005 and December 2007.

Many of the girls he sees are wards of the state, mentally ill or have been physically or sexually abused.

In a safe house the girls' special needs could be addressed, Voy said. They could get one-stop counseling, education about sexually transmitted diseases, medical and prenatal care if necessary, and substance abuse treatment.

Also, the girls wouldn't be able to simply walk away as in a traditional group home.

Voy admitted that the idea he's worked so hard on could fail. But it's worth the risk, he said.

"Is this going to fall flat on its face? I don't know," Voy said. "But I'm not one of these people out there who's afraid to fail. Until someone has the guts and the desire to do this, you'll never know."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.