Troubled Girls Were Sent to This Town to Heal. Many Were Lured Into the Sex Trade Instead.

People are going to disagree with me, but the death penalty is appropriate punishment for some of these defendants.

This is heartbreaking news to hear. Those responsible for the abuse and exploitation of these young girls need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

This is not just a Hawthorne problem. The pimps circle around facilities for troubled children everywhere. The important question is why these children feel working for a pimp is better than staying at the facility. I suspect the drugs the pimp has on offer is a powerful incentive. Of course the institutions are strict cold turkey. The kids (adults too) take drugs to ease the pain in their lives. If that pain is not looked after the kids will be gone.

News like this; and we live in what is believed to be the most advanced civilization on Earth. In places like Syria and Yemen recently, their problems are so off the charts that the word "crime" is an understatement while we live like lap dogs, consuming and feeding to our hearts content. People tell me I'm too pessimistic when I fail to engage in celebration, that I think too much. They probably don't read the headlines. Low information types.

“These were especially vulnerable victims,” the prosecutor, Elinor L. Tarlow, said. “They didn’t have stable residences. They didn’t have family support. They didn’t have guidance.” ???? These young girls undoubtably had long histories of sexual abuse. Hawthorne was suppose to be their home(stable environment). Hawthorne was suppose to offer family like support (yes it can be done in group homes). And no guidance!?? Who was overseeing the program there? Classic breakdown of the system at multiple levels. It is another example that taxpayer supported child abuse.

If our society is serious about eliminating the sex trafficking of minors, we must pass laws and fund facilities that require that vulnerable children be legally committed to locked facilities that can protect and care for them. It is ludicrous to think that children who have been abused, neglected, and fending for themselves for most of their young lives are going to voluntarily accept a structured, safe environment (whether in foster homes or facilities like Hawthorne) when there are so many vultures waiting to lure them back to a life in prostitution.

30 years practicing pediatrics in rural appalachia. the problems are getting worse- drug addiction tearing families apart and little medical care available for the addicted or dead parents so the children- severe behavioral problems-multiple foster homes- some very caring- but the funding for mental health care is dwindling at best. I think the country is headed for disaster without a massive change in the nations priorities. Didn't pres eisenhower say that every bomb, every gun, was food or medical care taken from our children..or something like that and so true. Massive tax cuts for the uber-rich, exploding deficits, and inevitable cuts in social and medical service ahead. the new democratic congress better have some guts and 2020 better bring some hope or i am afraid the great american experiment will be over.

Just remember the nice big tax cut the rich got is ultimately going to be partially paid for by doing away with or cutting funds for treating children like these, along with access to mental health screenings and myriad social welfare programs - from after school programs, to libraries to meals-on-wheels. Just so the one percenters can enjoy an extra summer home or private plane.

What David Hansell meant to say was, “We have a lot of tolerance for trafficking, and we have no programs in place to protect young people from being trafficked and exploited".

Perhaps the death penalty is warranted for sex traffickers.

What is wrong with people? Sometimes it seems that every third person out there is either causing misery or profiting from it!

Appalling and disgraceful that this occurred under the watch of an agency certified and approved by the New York State government. I am an attorney for children in the Family Courts of Westchester County. I have represented kids at Hawthorne and other treatment facilities in our county, and it frustrates me deeply, deeply, that traffickers seem to have infiltrated this institution in this horrific manner. The moral of the story, in my humble opinion, is the very long reach of criminal gangs, whose greed and violence enabled them to lure vulnerable teens from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds and victimize them in the worst possible fashion. I have no answers, only questions and outrage and sympathy for the victims.

As the story details, 'sex trafficking' does not necessarily involve girls being pulled off the streets into a van. Frequently they are in romantic relationships with their pimps and willingly (or claim to willingly) prostitute themselves. They often remain loyal to the pimps into criminal proceedings and may not corporate with law enforcement. Heartbreaking and all too common.

Beyond shame. What is this country turning into? In another case at the border, a detained asylum seeker's 7 year old daughter is in physical distress, and the authorities take 90 minutes to do anything, and the INNOCENT child dies. Predictably, the cowards in the White House take no responsibility. And the yapping "christian" right wing hyenas blame the father and the little girl. This country is sinking into a moral sewer.

Hawthorne Cedar Knolls has a very distinguished history. significant contribution to the treatment methods of children. a fine place to refer a child in the 1950's+1960's + 1970's. social welfare systems for children in rapid decline since the Clinton/Bush era.

all women need free access to birth control and abortion on demand. Unwanted children grow up to be unwanted adults and women who bear children they cannot love nor afford become trapped in poverty. We need less people on the planet, and more people who are born into loving stable homes with the resources to support them for twenty years. Not everyone is equipped to raise children. why should they be forced to have them?

It is getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning.

It's a tragic story, and I can't help wondering where all the anti-abortion activists are when it comes to supporting single mothers and abused children.

Very disturbing. Also interesting that Hawthorne is backed / run by Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, the same organization behind the disgusting study which involved breaking up of twins and triplets at birth for adoption as outlined in the movie Three Identical Strangers. Coincidence?

What a sad story. It’s great that these people are caught. Have no compassion for the predator gangsters both male and female criminals who victimized girls. Meanwhile their problems started from being born mostly to damaged sick parents. There’s no talent involved with sex or making a baby. None. Rehabs, addiction centers and jails get new people every day. Homeless camps are filled with more sad lives. Yes we have compassion but go to a poor neighborhood and you’ll see a pregnant mom with 3 kids trailing behind. In Los Angeles you’ll see illegal immigrants having baby after baby on their way to a hopeless life. Sex trafficking, addiction and alcoholism. Every baby born is not a blessing.

Seems like everyone is just trying to make money. Including the girls. People make choices and often they are not good choices. We can argue that they are ignorant of the reality and that may be true, but they are also complicit in that ignorance. The low grade criminals just know that all is fake, that justice is fake, that the laws are meant to control them and are not applied to all. What is the difference between a pimp and the head of any corporation? One gets paid more and will never be held legally accountable for anything.

Why hasn’t this trajedy seen the light of day previously and how high up the “chain of command” does the malfeasance go ? Who ultimately is responsible for the Home ? Who will step up to the plate and take responsibility ? Who will ensure it does not happen again ?

The problem is not troubled teenagers or regulated buildings of horror, it is troubling that mothers who obviously had little to no parenting skills bought these babies into this world. This is a pro-life created problem. Bring all those babies into the world, keep them alive and have no care regarding their future or their impact towards society. I say bring in comprehensive, cheap birth control plans so we can eliminate this whole notion of unwanted children. It is time the anti-abortion folks stopped their empty protests and thought forward to what might be a fair and just world for an innocent life.

Anybody here ever read Charles Dickens? Etc., etc., for hundreds of years before? We KNOW - that vulnerable people are very often abused horribly, once placed into "protective care", by any and all states, in all eras. The fact that we repeatedly and consistently fail to police such institutions - AND to police the police - is baffling. And horrifying. And eternally shameful. The predators had this figured out centuries ago. Ah, profits, they say; every time a child is taken into custody.

This isn't "sex trafficking." It's RAPE SLAVERY.

The author writes: “One defendant, Hubert Dupigny, 34, recruited a 16-year-old girl from Hawthorne who worked for him as a prostitute until he was arrested in December 2016, prosecutors wrote. At that point, the girl went to work for his brother, Hensley Dupigny, 29, who posted advertisements for her on Backpage.com and collected most of her earnings, the prosecutors said.” I have a problem with how this is phrased. This makes it sound like a teenage girl id choosing to go to work for the 2 pimps.

I am simultaneously looking at the "Board's" Facebook public page and not a mention of the closure of this chamber of horrors. In fact, the page has a December 5th comment praising Hawthorne staff: The Jewish Board December 5 at 4:04 AM · "Congratulations to our Hawthorne Campus staff that won Employee of the Year Awards at the NYS Coalition for Children’s Behavioral Health and the New York State Office of Mental Health collaborative 2018 Staff Development Training Forum. We are so proud of you!" There is something wrong here.

Tragic news, and I am glad that the defendants--the men who trafficked these vulnerable girls--are being prosecuted. Totally disgusting and, sadly, widespread crime. It is discouraging to read over and over again about adults abusing children and teens, and it is way past time our society made ending this abuse a priority. That includes putting the traffickers and "johns" in jail.

This is the same Jewish Board that was involved in the real life experiments on adopted children featured in Three Identical Strangers. This seems to indicate a pattern of highly immoral, illegal, nefarious behavior. I hope they’re finally investigated since they never seemed to be about their foray into human experimentation.

Exactly what is a "troubled girl"? Excessive drinking, drug use, violence and aggressive sexaual behavior perhaps. These are key qualifications for Yale and the Supreme Court in a privileged white male.

I was a young foster parent to a teenaged girl, maybe 15 or 16 years old. This was some time ago and I was only 22 myself. I'd met her though a mutual acquaintance who was living in cooperative housing downtown. Runaways often stayed there over night to get off the street. We got to know each other a little in the commons room at the coop and she asked me to be her foster parent, so I got licensed. She had a lovely bedroom and a good role model in me - a sympathetic, employed "girl", not much older than she was. I encouraged her to keep going to her alternative school. Initially I gave her whatever money was left after rent and a little spent on food. She spent everything right away the first month, so then I gave her the money leftover from the monthly basics in a weekly allowance. She introduce me to her parents who had kicked her out as they said she was "uncontrollable." They were very grateful and happy about her placement in my home. After maybe a few months I found her using hard drugs in her bedroom. I told her that if she wanted to live with me she was not going to be doing that. I said there is a better way... A few days later she said - I don't want you to be my Ma anymore. She ran off with her boyfriend, who had probably given her the drugs. She didn't tell me his name, I'm pretty sure he was an adult. I let her go - no cell phones then. These are some damaged, tough street wise kids. This is a complex problem. The Hawthorne was at least trying...

This story and the many others like it should be the headliner on the front page, not stories about Trump. Sex Trafficking is a very real problem which happens in every state, hidden in plain sight. We have heard over and over again how Backpage.com has served this crime, and yet it still endures because of loopholes in laws. It's time to start attacking any and all tools and methods for sex trafficking.

This is a small sample of what trafficking and prostitution looks like. The "pro sex work" advocates always claim that if prostitution were legalized there would be no pimps because women could freely choose whether to engage in commercial sex or not. But these girls aren't women and their troubled past means that their lives have been defined by lacking any real choices. The abolitionist movement does not oppose prostitution on moral grounds. Consenting adults should be free to pursue their sexual pleasures as they choose. But commercial sex always leads to exploitation and this is true whether it's legal or underground. We should criminalize the John's, not the women. We should provide real alternatives for women who have been exploited by the sex industry and we should absolutely protect our children who in todays world of the internet are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation.

There were a lot more problems with Cedar Knolls than just this atrocity. The biggest issue covers them all: No oversight on security and daily activities. For years, as far back as the 70s, children brought to the school were free to roam the neighborhood around the school, many of whom cased and robbed homes. It went on for years, even until recently. At some point, after so many break-ins,vans were dispatched to the nearby train station to cart the "residents" back and forth to Cedar Knolls facility. Still, robberies continued, even to my father's home nearby. Good riddance to this poorly run institution.

This problem is complicated, but before jumping to conclusions, readers should note that over the last 30 years, institutions like Hawthorne Cedar Knolls have been dealing with much more severely disturbed children, much more paperwork and regulation, and less funding. It is as if government and insurance companies believe that funding can be cut and quality maintained, simply by creating a complicated system of rules and regulations, with extreme punishments for violations of those rules and regulations. If it looks good on the outside, it must be good on the inside. People usually go into childcare because they care about children, not because they care about bureaucratic power or regulations. To be forced to do paperwork while children need your help is more than demoralizing; it is dehumanizing and leads to burnout. Politicians and bureaucrats are interested in quick fixes, and one quick fix is to put kids in foster homes instead of congregate care. That sounds good until you realize that pedophiles love to become foster parents, and myriad foster homes are much harder to supervise than a single congregate care facility. One person who experienced both, told me that foster homes are like a lottery: they can be really good or really bad. In comparison, congregate care was reliably OK. Looking back on his experience as an adult, he preferred reliable congregate care over a foster care lottery.

" children with behavioral or emotional problems who had become wards of the state. . . . “These were especially vulnerable victims,” the prosecutor, Elinor L. Tarlow, said. “They didn’t have stable residences. They didn’t have family support. They didn’t have guidance.” " Many must have had their behavioral or emotional problems because they did not have stable residences, family support, or guidance. Lack of it in the system could only have made them worse. If they already had problems, and then the system deprived them of whatever they had, however lacking, they could only have gotten worse. This indicts the system. These predators found victims who were already victims of the State. It is possible, with effort, to provide a wounded child with a stable residence, family-like support, and guidance. It is hard, in part because they may respond poorly to something so unfamiliar or contrived. It is hard because they are already wounded. But better can be done. These predators highlight a bigger problem, affecting all the rest of the children too, younger and older, boys and girls. This is a wake up call, hidden in a crime story.

"following pressure from state legislators, severe sanctions from the state child welfare office and growing complaints from residents of Mount Pleasant about teenagers wandering the town, particularly as they headed to trains back to New York City." This is how a real democracy works in cooperation with informed and involved citizens and transparent state and local agencies. I cannot imagine the end result of a privately run, republican fever dream government response to a situation like this. I suspect it would be swept so far under a carpet that it would never see the light of day. And the victims? They would be on their own.

There is a bigger story here. Why were these girls so desperate to leave? Teenagers make choices, though often not good ones. These girls weren't kidnapped. They wanted to leave, even if they'd been misled by people who wanted to exploit them. Some of them had been exploited before-- I doubt all of them would have blindly trusted the Dupigny brothers. They thought the risks of runny away were better than staying at the facility. This facility wasn't a prison because the residents didn't need to be incarcerated. It was supposed to be a safe home for them to receive treatment and care. It was supposed to be a better option than homelessness. It wasn't. Why not?

We spend a lot of money on picking up the pieces. Why aren't we spending more money on preventing this from happening to begin with? I worked at one of these places. What shocked me was how little education the people who supervised the residents in the cottages had to have. But when I saw the hourly wage I understood why: it's a minimum wage for a job that really requires the patience of a saint and a degree in psychology with an internship in working with difficult children. The turnover at the cottage level is extremely high. If we truly want to rehabilitate these children we need to start spending money, not on administrators and multiple levels of management but on the people who take care of them. And, dare I say it, we need to educate the area residents about why these young people are living in a residential setting to begin with. In my neck of the woods, a self proclaimed liberal village that is not liberal or tolerant, people believe that these children are criminals, don't deserve any chance at a better life, and certainly should not be contaminating our village or its environs. If we don't want these facilities around we have to start to improve things for children when they are born. Given our attitudes towards poor people that's not going to happen. The cycle will continue and so will the lack of understanding.

Yet another example of people falling through the cracks of America's institutions, by no one else than the people that run them.

Who is there to speak for these young women? Who is there to advocate for them? Apparently it's not the child welfare system. If the allegations are true the owners and administrators of this facility need to be in jail, but that won't help these girls. On our southern border children have been seperated from their parents and put into private, state-sponsored/contracted facilities similar, not as pretty, as the institution in this story. Who is watching out for those children? I fear we will hear of many similar tragedies there as well. Civilized. That's what we are.

Agree totally with the other comments. Would just like to add that the "sex trafficers", after due process, if found guilty, should be put in jail for the rest of their lives.

It's odd that this article doesn't feature any comment from the troubled teenagers. Could they be reached? How do they feel about this? Why have they been running away?

Like something out of a law and order drama of recent vintage… Oh wait! Those are “Ripped from the headlines”… Something prescient about that show

"Man's inhumanity to man" is why we need oversight and regulation and enforcement. And as citizens we have to get involved and be aware and act responsibly on our observations. But we also have to use good judgment and suppress our worst impulses. People who take it upon themselves to physically threaten others or lay hands on others or urge others to hurt someone are guilty of assault and battery and exacerbating violence which is increasing in our fragmented society.

This story is horrifying but important reporting. As a therapist who has been working with children for over twenty years, it’s shocking but needs to be addressed as Hawthorne is not an anomaly. I have worked in in-patient residential psychiatric facilities and hospitals and can say that these children and adolescents are our most vulnerable. They often have poor family foundations and weak support, mental illness and struggle with feeling connected and loved. The staff and facilitators are charged with helping and protecting these children but are ill-equipped to do this. These children a lost part of our population and they need support and treatment — and protection. Sex trafficking and taking advantage of young girls and young women in our own hometowns needs to stop. The system needs to change.

Devastating...all the talk about valuing children. It's just that - talk. And, there were warning signs. The city was concerned with the children running away but did they ever consider the reason?