How a Trafficking Survivor Became a Law Enforcement Leader

0:00I am a survivor of the sex industry and human sex trafficking. I wanted to throw the rope back to others that did not, like myself, have the opportunity to get the help that was needed. Katherine Griffin is a resilient, purpose-driven leader, recovery coach, and the founder of our roadway to freedom. And we've been there done that. Drawing from her own journey and commitment to rehabilitation, she empowers women to rebuild their lives, overcome adversity, and find a path toward lasting freedom. I rescue and rehabilitate. I have the only human trafficking for tear rehabilitation program that we know of in the world for human trafficking, meaning the four levels as labor, organ, sex, and drug. When you tell the truth about your life, your story, and you put it out there, it takes the sting out. Did you know she used to be a prostitut? I sure did, but what am I today?

1:02I work in law enforcement, and I'm a fella. Everything they said that I can't do, God has allowed me to do. It spans the globe, like a super high school, Internet Elvis. Ready? Fire! Today, Apple is going to reinvent the bomb. It's not over until I wear it. Welcome to the live broadcast of Living Your Legacy Podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. It's extremely, very impossible. Oh, that is sensational! Open! She's coming with the way you say it. The box is not on the planet. You can live your dream. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. We have the opportunity to talk with some of the greatest entrepreneurs around the country, the disruptors, and also beautiful women like yourself, women in power. We got a special episode that I'm really excited to get into.

2:04She said some amazing things, pre-show, but yeah, let's get into it. So, what's her name? Where are you from? And what do you do? So I'm Catherine Griffin. Okay. I am the human trafficking victim services director for Harris County Constable, FreeSync 1 under the leadership of the great Alan Rosen. And I rescue and rehabilitate. I have the only human trafficking for tier rehabilitation program that we know of in the world for human trafficking, meaning the four levels is labor, organ, sex, and drug. And it is housed in the Texas Department of Corrections at the Plain State Unit. It is called Our Roe Way to Freedom. And my free world program is called We've Been There, Done That.

3:06And I am a survivor of the sex industry and human sex trafficking. I am also in lifetime recovery from substance abuse. And I wanted to throw the rope back to others that did not, like myself, have the opportunity to get the help that was needed. Back then, we were just called those host, those prostitutes. Instead of understanding that a lot of us are incest survivors, we've been through molestation, rape, a lot of trauma. And when it comes down to working with individuals who've had all types of trauma, it's very important to be able to hear what an individual is saying. And then that lets me know if they are becoming or have already become addicted to their trauma.

4:09Because the very thing that hurt them, a lot of them run to, and unknowingly why. Yes, that trauma bonding. Yes. And so I am a peer-to-peer, sex industry recovery coach specialist dealing with mental health, substance abuse, and sexual trauma. Wow, a lot to unpack. There are a lot of amazing things. First of all, thank you for the work that you do. A lot of these people, like you said, they come from backgrounds of, I mean, you said some great incest or a lot of molestation, right? But first of all, when it comes to trafficking, you said for. A lot of us think of just human trafficking and that sexual trafficking, right? Human trafficking is the title. Yes, yes. Then you have four categories. Gotcha. And there was, you said organs, which is like, I'm going to ask you. Like organ donors? No, no, I'm going to ask you.

5:10Okay. What is the number one organ that is trafficked on the black network? I don't know, like hearts. Well, that means they had to kill them. Yeah, they know. I know. Skin. Skin is the largest organ and during the- The skin, I know, is the largest organ, right? So during war and where a lot of people have been burned and brown and black people are more of the highly targeted. There are so many different variations in the pigmentation of the skin and it's so easy, easily done because even with decedents, some people, not everybody's crooked, but a lot of the organ traffickers have money talks and say that your loved one passes away in

6:17the hospital. Most families never ask if they can examine their loved one's body when they get to a funeral home or even the ones that are doing cremation. So the reason why organ trafficking makes so much more money because it's silent and it's invisible in plain sight and a lot of people don't ever check. And you don't know if the retinas are gone, if the skin is gone, you don't know if the timing from the time that they are deceased till they get downstairs waiting on either the more to pick them up are the funeral home if organs have been removed. That's crazy. But does this make sense? Oh, it makes perfect sense now, but most people don't think of that darkness, right, when someone dies of someone stealing at that point, like human body parts and

7:22everybody's not crooked, but they're those who might be in palliative care, meaning hospice, end of life care. And if someone needs that organ and they were not registered organ donors, how do you know? Yeah. And if somebody wasn't paid a large amount of money to remove those organs, I mean, things happen. So that's one piece. The labor trafficking we know quite a bit about people working for little of no money, they hold their documents. And then anybody, can you say anybody? Okay, anybody. Anybody. Anybody. Anybody that ever has sold a joint? Okay. A rock. Yeah. Some meth, appeal, whatever to another human being you just drug trafficked.

8:23Okay, yeah. You understand? Oh, yeah. And what's interesting about that, a lot of kids used to our steel help support like the moms by selling illegal drugs. And so they are contributing to the delinquency of a minor with illegal substances. Yeah. So the mama can go to jail. You're already okay, the fact that you're receiving money from drug trafficking. There's so many different angles that the public just never really thought, well, I just sold a few dime bags just to pay the light bill or my phone bill. But that's a drug trafficking because you're trafficking drugs from one human being to another. Did you ever thought about it like that? No, no, no. Does it make sense? Yes, of course it does. And then you've got the sex trafficking.

9:24And the saddest part is sex trafficking. Most people just think of prostitution and women. But the transgender and transsexual population has been highly disrespected, misunderstood and targeted. And no one ever talks about that. Boys, girls, other, familial trafficking, meaning the mother actually sold their children. Boy, girl, other. In order to pay bills, just because they were pieces of shit. How about that? The sex trafficking part being coerced and groomed and made, thank you, doing this to help us.

10:30I love you. If you love me, you will do that. And so many that I've worked with and in the past, let's just do 20 years. They just did a basic count of how many people have been through one or both of my programs, 20 years out. And combined, 10.900 million individuals have been through one or both of my programs. So that's a lot of people. That's a ton of people. But you've got to remember, it's going to be a high population in the prison. I have my own building. I have three dorms. A dorm, B dorm, and C dorm. And I have a full staff. I'm very, very pleased that the Texas Department of Corrections had the heart to want to do

11:35this. Prison's job is just basically to be security. They don't really have to deal with recidivation because prisons get paid for people coming back. Yeah, you don't really think about rehabilitation programs when you think of prison. You think it's just hard time. So I'm very grateful to Texas as integrating your programs. Because these people are often a lot of the saddest stories that you hear. You think people look down on them, but it's like, have you ever thought about where they come from? So I watch a lot of a softwaite underbelly on YouTube, where the guy also interviews a lot of prostitutes and pims and the people that go to them. And he's always asking, tell me about your childhood. And so many of those stories are some of the saddest, saddest stories.

12:35And it's just like you feel for them. And so to hear on your end of things, a place where they can go and openly talk about it to a person you've been through it, right? And every day you're living it still and that healing process. But it's great. So people find you through the corrections facilities. Is that how they get to do it? First of all, I have the bat 9, which is a phone number. And if no one answers that number, please text that number, which is 832-878933. Again, that's 8-832-87878933 are you can go to Catherine Griffin, Townsend, 1960.

13:40Or you can just go to Catherine Griffin, Townsend, Instagram, Facebook. So I'm just so interested. Talk about your program for a bit. They find you, they come into your program. Right now in Harris County, all of the prostitution cases are the women working in strip clubs or the cantinas on those prostitution stings. They have a choice to either go to jail or come to, we've been there done that, which we call Hokeless, which stands for helping others excel. And all of us are hos helping others excel successfully. All of the terminologies that were derogatory that we were called, I flipped it. But when you see software under barely, right, it's almost like not like a drug addict,

14:42what I'm saying is that it's like, it's all they know. So they always go back to it because it's like the fast money sometimes. That's the problem. What did you just say? Fast money. Fast is telling you as fast as you get it, it's going to leave you even faster. And in my classes, you get to learn the difference in having a relationship, are living in a relationship. Now mind you, all relationships have relationship moments. But if you have more relationship moments, then relationship moments, you need to run like you got gasoline draws on an ill. It's not going to work. And like I was talking earlier about being addicted to your trauma and even in recovery,

15:45I am a woman in lifetime recovery. There are a lot of people that you're here. Oh, I've been sober for 10 years and then I relapse. Well, just because you abstain from using, don't necessarily mean you sober. If you still didn't get rid of the behaviors that went around, went along with being high. When you're sober and you're in lifetime recovery, all you got to do is just follow a few stupid ass rules. If the stop sign says stop, what do you do? It's not stopional. Right. That part, not stopional. And just because no police are around, are you out in the middle of nowhere? You have to practice daily, every day you wake up on zero and you just have to get through that day. And what's important is, idle, minds and idle time will set you up. I hear a lot of people tell me all the time, well, my mama died.

16:48Well, my dad died. Oh, my grandmother died. Or my child died. And that's why I relapse. Stop blaming your relapse on them, damn people. You relapse because you wanted to. You know? When you fall down on the ground, it's great. Your neapolps is also that, you know, there's the fast money, but then there's the fast healing, right? Right. And it's almost everybody wants micro, micro, wavable everything. It comes fast, but then it goes fast, right? Absolutely. And also the healing. It comes fast, but then it's gone, right? Right. Right. Yeah. I wish the microwaveable healing food was as good as the home cook food, but it's not it's not. It's not. It's not. But it's very important to be honest with yourself. Yeah. So say like when individuals like myself was high, hey, we own it. It's going to take a good four years for you to even try to untangle some of the lies

17:51that you actually convinced yourself that were real, you know? And one thing that I tell a lot of the people that I work with, they're like, I don't want to talk, tell my business. I don't want anybody in my business. I don't want anybody telling my story. Well, first of all, let me ask you something. And this is what I tell them. If you ate for three months and did not use the bathroom, how are you going to feel? How are you going to feel? Backed up. So when you actually go and eliminate that waste out of your system, how do you feel? Free. So are you going to reach back in the toilet and put it back in? I don't know. So when you let it go, you need to stop worrying about if somebody else is telling your story because if they're telling it, it is not your story.

18:51They just picked up your waste. Not it makes them even more foolish because they got their shit on top of your old shit. So if we stop worrying about what people are saying and living your truth, live and be okay with it, when you tell the truth about your life, your story and you put it out there, it takes the sting out. Did you know she used to be a prostitute? Sure did. Let me tell you what happened. So it doesn't affect me like I'm hiding some dark grave secret. You got to own it. You got to own it. You know they said she used to be a prostitute and I was. So was. You got to take your stuff. But what am I today? I work in law enforcement and I'm a felon. I think they said that I can't do. God has allowed me to do. Yeah, you got to just can't right at this point carry a handgun.

19:53But so I got this too but super glue. And it works real good when you squirt it in the eyes of somebody who want to mess with it. Yeah, you got to take those adversities and turn them into your superpower, right? Yes. That's what's on the other side of healing. So well, thank you so much. Right. We're running out of time here. But yeah, you're about to hop in your episode and I'm sure it's going to be an amazing one. And yeah, I mean, honestly, for a woman in power show, there's no other woman that I'd rather have here than yourself, you know, proving to everyone. Yeah, there's there's healing and I'm honestly you're I just can't thank you enough for the work. I thank you. Just follow the laws of the land. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, thank you guys for joining us for another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. And yeah, Catherine Griffin, right? Yeah. And yeah, the real Kathy Griffin. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, tune into your episode when it airs.

20:54I'm sure it's going to be an amazing one. And thank you for joining us again. Cheers, everyone.