(WFRV) – The Human Trafficking Institute has released the 2020 State Reports, which provide an overview of 2020 federal human trafficking prosecutions in all 50 states.

The data used within these reports are reportedly pulled from the 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report, which is an annual publication of the Human Trafficking Institute providing an objective summary of how federal systems hold traffickers accountable across the nation. Now, Local 5 is taking a look at this report and focusing on the findings surrounding our home state.

According to the Wisconsin state report, six new criminal human trafficking cases were filed in federal courts in 2020 with four of those cases filed in Wisconsin’s Eastern District and two of those being filed in the Western District.

Additionally, in 2020, 86 percent of active defendants were charged with sex trafficking and 14 percent were charged with forced labor in the state.

The report findings also revealed that Wisconsin has greatly improved from 2019 when asking those convicted to pay restitution. The report highlights that in 2020, federal courts ordered two out of five convicted defendants to pay restitution to their victim(s), an increase from 2019 when one out of six convicted defendants were ordered to pay restitution.

Furthermore, the report concluded that the state has a 100 percent sentencing rate with five out of five of the defendants were sentenced to prison. One hundred and forty-three months or just under 12 years was the average prison sentence across the state in 2020.

For the full 2020 Wisconsin State Report, click here.