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.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5088A
SPONSOR: Reyes TITLE OF BILL:
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
PURPOSE:
To develop a task force on Missing BIPOC Women and Girls that will work
to address the discrepancies in lack of care/concern for missing and
murdered Black, Indigenous, women and girls of color.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 sets forth legislative findings.
Section 2 sets forth the composition of the taskforce, which will be
composed of the Commissioner of Office of Family and Children's
Services, Commissioner of Division of Criminal Justice Services, State
Police Superintendent, or the designee of those Commissioners. Addi-
tional members will be appointed by the temporary president of the
Senate (2), by the speaker of the Assembly (2), minority leader of the
Senate (1), and minority leader of the Assembly (1). The task force must
hold hearings in. the course of its work and submit a report of its
findings and recommendations to the legislature within two years.
Section 3 sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Oftentimes, cases of missing and murdered BIPOC women and girls are
handled with a lack of concern, attention, and competency. According to
a 2020 report by the Women's Media Center there are approximately 75,000
missing Black women and girls across the United States. Another report
released by the Sovereign Bodies Institute documents 2,306 missing
Native American women and girls in the U.S.
Advocates and families point to insufficient attention, lack of cultural
awareness and the historical underreporting and general scarcity of
statistics of missing and murdered women of color, and procedures that
result in misclassification, poor record keeping, and adverse
community/tribal relationships.
The tens of thousands of these missing BIPOC women and girls include
abductees, sex trafficking victims, and runaways: These girls experience
the intersection of racism and sexism, which unfortunately results in
pervasive social and economic barriers.
Missing BIPOC girls are categorized as runaways which leaves cases to be
pushed aside and treated with a lack of urgency. BIPOC women and girls
are easily erased from public discussion. We must not let these women
and girls fall victim to the systemic failures that they are not respon-
sible for. By developing a task force on this crisis, New York State can
take charge and acknowledge the work that must be done to bring justice
for missing BIPOC women and girls.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-22: Referred to Governmental Operations
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
$1 million cost to the state.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law and shall expire and be deemed repealed three years after
such date.
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.
