WORCESTER - Pimp-controlled human trafficking, such as what Nicole Bell experienced for years on the streets of Worcester, is one of the most brutal forms of trafficking there is. And according to a recently released documentary on sex trafficking and American prisons, it works like any other business model.

Vulnerable victims are trafficked, incarcerated, recruited and released again and again, dependent on their pimp. Alternatives - without outside intervention - include beatings, homelessness and painful drug withdrawal.

Ms. Bell is one of the survivors featured in the film by the United Kingdom-based news outlet The Guardian, called “The Trap: The deadly sex-trafficking cycle in American prisons.” She has been in long-term recovery for more than four years and founded Living in Freedom Together, a survivor-led nonprofit organization that provides support to empower individuals to exit and recover from commercial sexual exploitation.

Mei-Ling McNamara directed and produced the film with Annie Kelly. Ms. McNamara appeared by Skype with local panelists at a screening and discussion held Monday night at Clark University.

The program aimed to raise awareness of the vicious cycle that can entrap women who have faced earlier trauma and highlighted the need for support for victims.

Toward that end, Ms. Bell said beforehand, LIFT plans to finalize in two weeks the purchase of a house in Worcester to provide long-term treatment and life skills training for up to 16 women with substance use disorder who have been prostituted.

The center is slated to open in April, but “we could fill the house tomorrow, unfortunately,” Ms. Bell said.

Funding comes through the state Department of Public Health, in a fiscal 2019 budget earmark secured by state Sen. Harriette Chandler, according to Ms. Bell.

The documentary shows, through interviews with convicted sex traffickers and victims, the methodical way in which U.S. jails and prisons have become “hunting grounds for human traffickers.”

Florida resident Richard Rawls, the first sex trafficker convicted for trafficking women from prison, explained he was “looking for girls that didn’t have a place to go.”

It was easy to look through mug shots of women convicted of prostitution, get their personal information and even find out when they would be released.

Traffickers groom their victims, who often have no one else on the outside. They send warm letters, put money in their prison bank account and show up in a car at the victim’s release to bring them to their new home - with the trafficker.

Through LIFT, Ms. Bell teaches a class at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, where she talks about her experience being groomed and works to help inmates build self-esteem and develop skills to make healthier choices.

Women from Worcester County are sent to the Chicopee center for pretrial and post-conviction incarceration.

“Every day at LIFT we see the catastrophic impact” trafficking has on women, Ms. Bell said. Prostitution “looks more like violence than it does ‘Pretty Woman,’ ” she said, referring to the 1990 romantic-comedy movie about a sex worker.

Mary Quinn, coordinator of Out of County Aftercare Services at the Chicopee correctional center and one of the panelists, said the jail is working to address factors that may have facilitated sex trafficking. For example, officials are trying to find out who is posting bail for the victim and let her know, so she can decide whether to leave. Incoming mail is being read.

Ms. Quinn said she is trying to “help women realize their choices about who they’re going to stay with.”

Finding appropriate housing is a huge problem that can lead women back into prostitution, according to several panelists and audience members.

One woman in recovery in the audience, a former nurse, said, “While I was out there, I came close to crossing that line (into prostitution).”

City Councilor Sarai Rivera said, “I really want to change the dynamic of how we view these women.”

In Worcester, she said, police now arrest men who buy sex, instead of just arresting victims. Hotel operators must go through training to recognize trafficking. Community benefit agreements with developers are addressing employing people who may have a criminal record.

Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud said the court system has failed to address the heart of the problem. He called for more partnerships with organizations such as LIFT and Everyday Miracles, a peer recovery support center.

Panelists and audience members also called for prevention, since sexual exploitation starts at young ages.

"It's a men's issue that becomes a women's issue," Ms. Bell said. "Let's teach men not to be perpetrators."