Corley claims that Brianna Ellis’ daughter was kidnapped and drugged Dec. 31, 2012. She had met friends at a Jackson hotel. Corley, now a crisis prevention specialist at the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department believes Brianna was a victim of human traffickers who force women into modern-day slavery. Law enforcement agencies and other institutions have been more aggressive in raising awareness about modern slavery. This is any situation where people are forced to work against the will of others for their profit, like sex trafficking or child labor. Tougaloo College established an Institute for the Study of Modern Day Slavery in the fall of 2013. This was the first institution of its kind to be founded by a historically black college. Corley was unsure about her daughter’s fate in the early part of 2013. Corley tried many times to reach her but was unsuccessful. She reported Brianna missing the Jackson Police Department. . Corley became convinced after receiving a distressing text message from Brianna, asking for help. Jackson police figured that she was likely at a Belle Isle motel, Fla., close to Orlando, using GPS tracking. A police report by Belle Isle Sgt. Greg Grayson stated that Jackson police called Belle Isle police Jan. 5, with suspicions that Ellis was being held against will. According to the Belle Isle police report Ellis was found by an officer in a car outside the motel. Ellis recognized Ellis’ identity and asked the officer to help her get home. The other person was an older woman also in the car. Ellis refused to describe what happened and Belle Isle police said no charges were brought against her. Ellis was then returned to Jackson by bus. Since then, Ellis has moved out of the state and is not willing to talk with the media. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline has recorded more than 27,000 cases related to human trafficking in the last eight years. The resource center reported 29 Mississippi calls to this hotline to law enforcement as of June 30th. 21 of these cases were deemed sex trafficking, while 7 were labor trafficking. Most of these cases involved minors. Special Assistant Attorney General Paula Broome is deputy chief of Mississippi Attorney General’s Bureau of Victims Assistance. She says that Mississippi is a great place to commit such a crime if you are a trafficker. Broome says, “We have major highways that cross, we are on major rivers and coastal areas and we are centrally located between major cities such as Memphis, New Orleans and Dallas, which are major hubs for trafficking.” Broome says that there is a lot of agricultural construction in Mississippi. This makes it easy for traffickers to believe “where is the greatest risk?” It’s easy for residents, law enforcement, and agencies to overlook the indicators in Mississippi, which is a rural state. Broome states that the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office doesn’t have any records of arrests or prosecutions for human trafficking violations. However, the agency is currently working to create a database. Tougaloo College received a $350,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation this summer to help raise awareness and create strategies to combat modern-day slavery. The grant funds a 12-member interdisciplinary faculty board that allows them to increase course content, research, and create action plans for students. Tougaloo is known for its ability to promote justice through a range of social issues, especially during the civil rights era. The private college wants to revive the role it played in that period, according to Dr. Stephen L. Rozman. He heads the Institute for the Study of Modern Day Slavery, and is the dean of the Social Science section. Tougaloo’s chair, Dr. Daphne Chamberlain is adding an entirely new angle to her course content in the fall. A comparative curriculum was prepared to examine the enslavement and exploitation of children aged 7-18 under race-based slavery versus the 21st century. She teaches students how to make an oral history collection of victims through her mission to “reclaim lost voice”. Chamberlain says that it adds authenticity. “Oral histories can help you see the potential to prevent people from being trafficked.” Dr. Brenda Wilder, assistant professor in Music at Tougaloo hopes to travel to Cambodia with Alli Mellon, founder and director of The Hard Places Community missionaries, who work to protect victims of child abuse. Wilder is inspired by the success of the organization in Cambodia and plans to incorporate the model at Tougaloo. There is a rating system that can be used to rate countries from one to three. One is for people who recognize trafficking and want to stop it. Three is for people who do nothing. Wilder says that the third level is common in many countries, including Cambodia. Wilder says that many children are taken against the will of their parents and used for trafficking. Until we address the issue, trafficking in Asia, the US, and other countries will continue if we don’t do anything.” Students in Wilder’s Introduction to Music class were instructed to write research papers about modern-day slavery. Students must also describe five ways that they intend to resolve the problem. Wilder will allow students to use a variety musical styles to create songs that help survivors heal. Mississippi’s 2013 human trafficking laws were strengthened in order to increase penalties for offenders and provide protections and protections for victims such as confidentiality provisions and safe harbors. Broome states that Mississippi does not have enough services for victims. She says it is difficult to place teenage victims because they tend to return to traffickers. They can’t stay at group homes as victims are known to recruit others into their lives. Broome stated that although there are no shelters for victims, there has been much discussion about how existing homes can provide specific services to victims. Broome said that the state’s existing domestic violence women shelters have grown and will now accept victims of sextrafficking. Selika Corley, a non-profit organization named Without Consent, was founded shortly after her daughter Brianna returned from home. She travels to churches, women’s shelters, and other institutions in Jackson to tell the story of her daughter. Corley states that sex trafficking was a new concept to the local police in 2013. She admits that there were “mistakes” during the investigation into her daughter’s disappearance. But she won’t blame anyone. Corley was hired by the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department in 2012 as a crisis prevention specialist to assist with investigations of such crimes for mothers and victims.