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Letter

Treating Traumatized Girls

Hawthorne Cedar Knolls is a rehabilitation center in Westchester County that is home to many children who have been trafficked for sex. Residents at Hawthorne go missing at a significantly higher rate than those in similar programs.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

To the Editor:

2 Homes for Sex-Trafficking Victims Struggle to Keep Residents Safe” (news article, Dec. 7) highlights the difficulty of working with girls in residential treatment centers. However, it fails to note that these facilities are too often dumping grounds for vulnerable and traumatized adolescents who have been repeatedly failed by the child welfare system.

Tragically, these “treatment” facilities often provide little treatment, particularly for sexually exploited girls, but instead further isolate them from their families and communities, too often for years on end. That these youths go “AWOL” to families and friends, and even their exploiters, should surprise no one. They crave meaningful, supportive connections, which are rarely available in the treatment centers.

Intensive, community-based wraparound services are a far better alternative for these youths, providing an opportunity to develop healthy long-term relationships and facilitating a transition to independent living. Without sufficient resources, residential treatment centers serve as a warehouse at best, and at worst as a pipeline into the criminal justice system. These youths deserve better.

DAWNE A. MITCHELL, NEW YORK

The writer is the attorney-in-charge for the Juvenile Rights Practice of the Legal Aid Society.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 30 of the New York edition with the headline: Treating Traumatized Girls. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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