For over a decade, a string of Jane Does told our criminal justice system about the many sins of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their barbaric band of billionaires who captured children and turned them into sex slaves.

And for over a decade, the justice system laughed in their faces, letting Epstein off with a flew slaps on the wrist in civil courts and, as a result of a non-prosecution agreement protecting any and all co-conspirators, just one charge in criminal court for the solicitation of prostitution — as though a girl young enough to be in middle school has the capacity to consent to selling her own body for sex.

Everything changed last November, when the Miami Herald's Julie K. Brown ripped open not just the dirty deals that protected Epstein during his criminal trial but also the identities of those Jane Does. Jane Doe 1 was no longer a shadow. She was now Courtney Wild, a straight-A student and captain of the cheerleading team, whom Epstein helped turn into a drug addict and a stripper. For over a decade, the world ignored Jane Doe after Jane Doe after Jane Doe. But overnight, Virginia Giuffre wasn't just one woman yelling into the void anymore. Instead Giuffre was joined by a series of battle-hardened women willing to share their worst pain with the world.

They did not owe us their stories. In cases involving sexual abuse or assault, especially regarding that of minors, the media will not identify accusers to the public, based on the understanding that to force a victim to undergo yet another invasion of privacy would constitute a second punishment and cause a chilling effect among other victims pondering whether to report. Yet countless women and girls went to the authorities with evidence of multiple felonies, and the system was quite literally rigged against them. So they had to speak up. They placed the most intimate and violent details of their lives for the country to see in print. It was undoubtedly empowering. It was also one of the greatest acts of sacrifice a victim can do for the world.

Even after the world woke up to the horrors of not just Epstein's crimes but the political machinations complicit in protecting him, the justice system failed his victims once more. The Metropolitan Correctional Center allowed Epstein, just two weeks after a suicide attempt, have the final laugh and use a bedsheet to asphyxiate himself until he evaded justice for the final time.

But Ghislaine Maxwell is still out there. Prince Andrew is still out there. Dozens if not hundreds of predators who cycled through Epstein's house of horrors are still out there. There is still justice to mete out, and it's time that the system do some of the work for a change.