LACK OF LOVE PRESS RELEASE

Film Tells the Story of Tiffany Simpson: A Child Sex Trafficking Survivor Prosecuted and Jailed as an Adult at Seventeen

Lack of Love Launches Survivor Justice Initiative Campaign to Free Simpson and Begin Movement to Ensure All Survivors are No Longer Prosecuted and Jailed

Lack of Love, a newly released short documentary supports the efforts to free child sex trafficking survivor Tiffany Simpson and begin a movement to ensure all survivors of human trafficking are no longer prosecuted and jailed.

Locked up for the last 9 years in a southern Georgia jail, child sex trafficking survivor Tiffany Simpson dreams of swimming in the ocean with her son, Ayden. As narrated by Tiffany from jail, lack of love is her story of learning what love truly is while fighting for her freedom. To view, visit www.freetiffany.org.

Lack of Love, a short, animated documentary by filmmaker Noel Keserwany and What Took You So Long, illuminates the dark reality that across America, there are victims of human trafficking trapped in jail as a result of their own victimization. The script, based on Tiffany’s own words, takes viewers on a voyage of one young girl’s abuse by her trafficker, which continued when she was prosecuted and jailed for a crime he forced her to commit: no one around her saw that she was drowning.

“I want everyone to know how I ended up in jail because it’s time society sees how their lack of love leads to kids like me falling into trafficking and abuse. If you never feel love around you, you will hold onto the first person offering it. Then, you are hooked,”writes Tiffany from Pulaski State Prison in Hawkinsville, Georgia.

In 2012, Tiffany wrote a letter to Andrea Powell, the co-founder of Karana Rising, a community of survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. In her letter, Tiffany asked, “Am I a victim of sex trafficking, or am I just a prostitute?” As their connection deepened, so did Tiffany’s own understanding of how society’s indifference led to her exploitation, arrest, and ultimately a 30-year sentence when she was only 17 years old. Nine years later, Tiffany deserves to be free.

“Survivors of human trafficking like Tiffany Simpson deserve to be free.Through our partnership with Dressember, survivors and allies, we are are raising awareness of the injustice many survivors face and the need for legal clarity that it is the state, not the victim, that holds the burden of proof. All across America, there are kids like Tiffany being left in jail, often for decades, rather than being helped by the very criminal justice system that has so often let them done. It’s time we achieve justice for them and allow them to recover and move forward, free to rebuild their own life , one that a trafficker took from them.,”says Andrea Powell, co-founder and executive director at Karana Rising.

Lack of Love is the feature documentary of the Survivor Justice Initiative, a partnership between Karana Rising, Dressember, survivors, allied agencies and legal experts launched to support survivors who are arrested or incarcerated as a result of their human trafficking experience.

The Survivor Justice Initiative supports currently incarcerated survivors by providing direct social and legal support during their unjust incarceration and on their pathway to freedom. On Saturday, May 1, Dressember will host a #FreeTiffany virtual 5K run to raise support for survivors like Tiffany that include wellness supplies, therapy, legal services, access to educational supplies and more.

“Since 2013, Dressember has mobilized tens of thousands of individuals to fight human trafficking and raised over $13 million. We recognize that traffickers often prey on individuals with compounding vulnerabilities, which is why we seek to address this intersectional issue systematically. As we continue to see victims and survivors criminalized, we’re proud to take a stand alongside Karana Rising to educate the public and demand survivors’ freedom and clearing of records so they can begin their journey toward healing.” — Marissa Peden, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Dressember Foundation.

In addition to directly supporting survivors like Tiffany, the Survivor Justice Initiative supports enacting model legislation to clarify that once trafficking survivors establish by probable cause that they were victims of human trafficking at the time the crime occurred, then the state, not the victim, bears the burden of proving intent and willfulness in the commission of the crime. Providing an affirmative defense for trafficking survivors along with legal solutions to vacate convictions and make survivors legally whole are critical to survivor justice. Tiffany and all survivors like her, deserve their full freedom.