Full thanks and credit to Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the now independent Diocese of South Carolina, whose blog brought this article to my attention:
Jamie Mitchell’s gaunt frame swayed behind a glass window at the Charleston County jail as she explained why, after years of being busted and serving time, she still chooses to work as a prostitute in North Charleston.
It turns out it wasn’t always a choice
The 29-year-old said others forced her to sell sex for money from age 10 until 17, while she was in the foster care system. She recounted beatings, starvation, forced cocaine and heroin use and seeing the disappearance of other girls who stepped out of line with their traffickers.
The experience left her hooked on crack cocaine and dependent on turning tricks to feed her habit. Yet she still refers to herself as “one of the lucky ones.”
Read it all (a long and fascinating look at this problem) at Post and Courier.