TL;DR: REP. RABB’S CONTROVERSIAL VOTES WERE RIGHT.<\/p>\n
Rep. Chris Rabb has been criticized for being the sole member of a House committee to vote against legislation directed against trafficking children. But as I explained in this post, he did the right thing. Anyone who knows the history of how the criminal justice system has criminalized poverty and been racist in its outcomes would recognize that these two bills were deeply problematic. And he didn\u2019t just do the right thing. He also took a stand of conscience against legislation that sounds good but isn\u2019t\u2014even though he knew it would cost him politically.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m even prouder of my support for Rep. Rabb today than I was two days ago. He is a politician of uncommon character and integrity.<\/p>\n
Chris Rabb is getting pummeled for doing the right thing. Please share this and set the record straight.<\/p>\n
THE WHOLE STORY<\/p>\n
Like many of you, when I first heard that Rep. Chris Rabb was the sole representative to vote against two bills that were said to be directed against trafficking children, I was surprised.<\/p>\n
My first thought was that this was a bad political move. It\u2019s a bad look to be the one legislator who stands against Democrats and Republicans and opposes legislation that is supposed to help victims of abuse.<\/p>\n
But my second thought was to resist reaching any conclusions and look more deeply at what these bills were and why Rep. Rabb opposed them.<\/p>\n
I hesitated to condemn him for two reasons.<\/p>\n
The first is that I know a fair bit about the history of criminal justice policy in the United States. I taught a course on the subject in my first teaching job, and I\u2019ve tried to keep a bit current.<\/p>\n
One thing this history teaches us is that many so-called \u201creforms\u201d meant to improve the criminal justice system and reduce crime\u2014and that received bipartisan support\u2014backfired terribly. Instead of reducing crime, they often criminalized more behavior that was best dealt with in other ways than the criminal justice system. And they were enforced in ways that were biased against those who were Black or brown or who had low incomes.<\/p>\n
For example, the invention of the juvenile justice system was put forward as a reform that would divert children from adult courts, treat them with compassion in the new juvenile courts, and keep them out of harsh prisons. But the reality turned out differently. The new juvenile justice system brought far more children under the courts’ supervision. The juvenile courts proved as punitive as the adult courts. Reform schools were cruel and dehumanizing places where children suffered greatly. And the children who came under the control of this system were disproportionately poor, Black, and brown.<\/p>\n
And need I remind you that the crack-down on crime in the 1970s and \u201980s led to the great expansion of mass incarceration we sadly still live with today?<\/p>\n
The second reason I hesitated to condemn Rep. Rabb is that I know he\u2019s very aware of this history. We talked about it many years ago.<\/p>\n
So, when he released his statement on this vote, I was not surprised to see that it is a product of his deep thought and in-depth knowledge.<\/p>\n
On H.B. 910, Rabb said the following:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a descendant of Black women, men and children legally bought and sold under the imprimatur of state law, my opposition to human trafficking is unwavering. So, it goes without saying that no child should ever be bought, sold or traded \u2014 and Pennsylvania law already treats that conduct as a serious felony. However, what H.B. 910 actually does is blur the line between organized exploitation and the desperate, often heartbreaking choices made by vulnerable parents, risking felony charges against people who need support, not a prison sentence. We can protect children without criminalizing poverty and desperation, and that\u2019s exactly why I could not in good conscience support the current version of the bill in committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
H.B. 910 is put forward as legislation to close a loophole and apply human trafficking rules to infants. But as Rep. Rabb recognizes, closing this loophole might lead to the prosecution of people who are desperately poor and turn their infants over to others because they cannot care for them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a sufficient response to this claim to say that \u201cthis would not happen\u201d\u2014for our entire history teaches us that it\u2019s precisely this kind of thing that happens to desperately poor and vulnerable people.<\/p>\n
About H.B. 2443, Rabb said the following:<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday, I voted no on H.B. 2443 in committee because I refuse to build a house on sand. Child victims deserve our full commitment \u2014 and full commitment means funding that actually works. This bill funds a child welfare program that may never materialize. Fines and fees have chronically low collection rates because many people simply can\u2019t pay. Worse, the fund\u2019s existence becomes dependent on continued criminal legal system involvement, creating a perverse financial incentive to lock up more people. I am prepared to file an amendment to this bill so that when it comes up for a floor vote, I can vote for it, given my strong support for this legislation\u2019s underlying goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TL;DR: REP. RABB’S CONTROVERSIAL VOTES WERE RIGHT. Rep. Chris Rabb has been criticized for being the sole member of a House committee to vote against legislation directed against trafficking children. But as I explained in this post, he did the right thing. Anyone who knows the history of how the criminal justice system has criminalized poverty and been racist in its outcomes would recognize that these two bills were deeply problematic. And he didn\u2019t just do the right thing. He also took a stand of conscience against legislation that sounds good but isn\u2019t\u2014even though he knew it would cost him politically. I\u2019m even prouder of my support for Rep. Rabb today than I was two days ago. He is a politician of uncommon character and integrity. Chris Rabb is getting pummeled for doing the right thing. Please share this and set the record straight. THE WHOLE STORY Like many of\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1896,"featured_media":130409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-elections-and-voting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Rabb-Pennsylvania-200.jpg?fit=625%2C345&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-z5I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136071,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134894\/revisions\/136071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/130409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}