BATESVILLE, Ark. (AP) A juvenile detention facility synonymous with neglect and abuse is to be shuttered and the building transformed into a treatment center for sex trafficking survivors.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that White River Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Batesville will close by this summer.
Facility director Jonathan Pickering says the new center will offer group and individual therapy for girls who were sex trafficking victims.
A former White River jailer was sentenced in April to seven years in prison for what a judge called “sadistic and completely unjustified” punishments for disorderly juveniles. Another was imprisoned in March for violating youths’ rights and falsifying documents.
Juvenile public defender Dorcy Corbin expressed cautious optimism for the facility’s transformation, saying locking kids up “is not the way to help (them) succeed.”
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI