The Network for Women gets serious about a major issue with the four-hour miniseries “Human Trafficking” (8 p.m., Lifetime, concludes Tuesday). Mira Sorvino stars as a New York City cop who grows so disgusted by the number of foreign-born prostitutes flooding the streets, she joins a special federal agency headed by Bill Meehan (Donald Sutherland) dedicated to cracking down on the international sex trade.

“Trafficking” follows three parallel stories, each of them grim. Helena (Isabelle Blais) is a single mother from Prague who is seduced and sold by a “nice guy.” A teenager from Kiev thinks she’s won a modeling contest only to be forced into prostitution, and a 12-year-old American girl is snatched from her vacationing parents on the streets of Manila and forced to participate in the sex “tourism industry.”

More informational than entertaining, “Trafficking” offers plenty of opportunities for polemical observations, particularly from Sutherland. The story and its lesson would probably be more effective had “Trafficking” focused more tightly on one victim. Not for the squeamish, the four-hour film makes its point with scenes of extreme violence and abject horror, as in the opening moments when a young girl commits suicide rather than submit to her obese and repulsive “customer.”

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ On back-to-back episodes of “Prison Break” (Fox), riots (7 p.m.), a hidden agenda (8 p.m.)

¢ The Falcons play host to the Jets on “Monday Night Football” (8 p.m., ABC).

¢ Dating can be murder on “CSI: Miami” (9 p.m., CBS).

¢ Nightmare visions of an office shooting on “Medium” (9 p.m., NBC).

A salon fixation on “The King of Queens” (7 p.m., CBS) … A memorable Halloween on “How I Met Your Mother” (7:30 p.m., CBS).