Bill Text: NY A05088 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Establishes a task force on missing women and girls who are black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) to develop policy changes that will work to address the lack of care and concern for missing and murdered BIPOC women and girls with New York state governmental agencies.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 21-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2023-05-31 - substituted by s4266a [A05088 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A05088-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         5088--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      March 2, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  REYES,  ANDERSON,  CARROLL,  GONZALEZ-ROJAS,
          EPSTEIN, GLICK, L. ROSENTHAL, SIMON -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of  A.
          BRAUNSTEIN  -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental
          Operations -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
          amended and recommitted to said committee

        AN ACT to establish a task force on missing  women  and  girls  who  are
          black, indigenous and people of color; and providing for the repeal of
          such provisions upon expiration thereof

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Legislative findings  and  intent.  The  legislature  finds
     2  that:
     3    a.  According  to  a 2020 report by the Women's Media Center there are
     4  64,000-75,000 missing Black women and girls across the United States.
     5    b. Cases involving Black women and girls  often  do  not  receive  the
     6  attention they need and there are often barriers to families reporting a
     7  loved  one,  such  as  mistrust of police, and racial disparities in how
     8  disappearances are tracked.
     9    c. The tens of thousands of Black women  and  girls  who  are  missing
    10  include  abductees,  sex  trafficking victims, and runaways. Black women
    11  and girls exist at the intersection of racism and sexism, and often face
    12  worse health, wealth, housing, education, and employment outcomes.
    13    d. Black girls comprise over 40% of domestic sex  trafficking  victims
    14  in the United States.
    15    e. Missing Black girls are often categorized as runaways and there are
    16  treatment disparities with their cases.
    17    f.  According  to  a  2020 report by the Sovereign Bodies Institute, a
    18  nonprofit, indigenous-led research organization, at least 2,306  missing
    19  Native  American  women and girls have gone missing in the last 40 years
    20  in the United States, about 1,800 of whom were killed or vanished.
    21    g. Systemic vulnerability and compounding suppressions  have  resulted
    22  in  mass  amounts  of  disappeared indigenous peoples, with the National
    23  Congress of American Indians finding that an estimated 40% of women  who

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05565-03-3
        A. 5088--A                          2

     1  are  victims  of  sex  trafficking  identify  as American Indian, Alaska
     2  Native, or First Nations.
     3    h.  Families  of Native American women and girls who have gone missing
     4  across the country report a lack of cultural awareness, systemic  racism
     5  and sexism, and express frustration that their cases are not pursued.
     6    i.  There is not comprehensive state or federal data about missing and
     7  murdered Native Americans. Advocates argue  that  poor  record  keeping,
     8  racial  misclassification,  adverse relationships between tribal govern-
     9  ments and outside law enforcement  have  led  to  an  underreporting  of
    10  cases.
    11    §  2. a. There is hereby established a task force on missing women and
    12  girls who are black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).  Such  task
    13  force  shall be composed of the commissioner of the office of family and
    14  children's services,  the  commissioner  of  the  division  of  criminal
    15  justice  services,  the superintendent of state police, or the designees
    16  of such commissioners and superintendent. Additional  members  shall  be
    17  appointed  as follows, two shall be appointed by the temporary president
    18  of the senate, two shall be appointed by the speaker  of  the  assembly,
    19  one  shall  be  appointed  by the minority leader of the senate, and one
    20  shall be appointed by the minority leader of the assembly. Members shall
    21  be representative of the communities experiencing this crisis, including
    22  directly impacted individuals, reflect the diversity of New York  state,
    23  and have experience in cultural competency.
    24    b. Task force members shall receive no compensation for their services
    25  but  shall  be  reimbursed for actual and necessary expenses incurred in
    26  the performance of their duties.
    27    c. The task force shall:
    28    (i) develop policy changes that will work to address the lack of  care
    29  and concern for missing and murdered BIPOC women and girls with New York
    30  state  governmental  agencies,  including identifying policies to ensure
    31  first responders are culturally competent;
    32    (ii) advance the knowledge of communities on  the  severity  of  BIPOC
    33  women and girls who are missing and murdered;
    34    (iii)  ensure  BIPOC  communities  are  educated  and  trained  on the
    35  prevention, protection, and protocols relating to  missing  BIPOC  women
    36  and girls as it relates to social media;
    37    (iv)  develop a strategy to collect statistics, demographics, surveys,
    38  oral histories, and data analysis;
    39    (v) recommend preventive programming and ideas to advance  the  safety
    40  of  women  and  girls,  including  policies that address the overlapping
    41  forms of oppression faced by BIPOC women and girls;
    42    (vi) identify major traffic hubs, highways,  and  resource  extraction
    43  sites that lead to or are responsible for the facilitation of the abduc-
    44  tion of BIPOC women and girls; and
    45    (vii) create a state-wide awareness campaign.
    46    d. In carrying out the duties of the task force, such task force shall
    47  seek public input by holding public hearings in each region of the state
    48  and accepting public input in writing.
    49    e.  On  or  before two years after the effective date of this act, the
    50  task force shall submit to the temporary president of  the  senate,  the
    51  speaker  of  the  assembly,  the  minority  leader of the senate and the
    52  minority leader of the assembly a report  containing  its  findings  and
    53  recommendations. Such reports shall be made available to the public.
    54    §  3.  This  act  shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
    55  have become a law and shall expire and be deemed  repealed  three  years
    56  after such date.