Letter: The right people aren't listening: Tracey's Place

Michelle Durand’s column, "What happened to Tracey’s Place of Hope?” in the Jan. 20 edition of the Daily Journal, poses an important question. The question is easily answered and is at the heart of the most painful decision the Women’s Recovery Association Board has ever made. However, Durand also asks, "Why does it seem like [Tracey’s Place] has given up on itself?” Her tone is accusatory, and Durand goes on to conclude that "ignoring an ugly truth doesn’t make it go away.” She goes on to state that nobody understands the WRA’s silence — despite the fact that the WRA initiated repeated discussions with county agencies so that it could ask, "How can we keep Tracey’s open?” Our board, which consists of diverse individuals with strong ties to WRA’s mission, has debated this question since Tracey’s opened. What Durand construes as an ignoring of an ugly truth is a simple conviction that the survival of Tracey’s Place is best served by quiet diplomacy and respect for clients’ privacy. The answer to Durand’s question: Tracey’s Place is simply another victim of hard times, an all-too-familiar story these days. However, Tracey’s Place’s closing does highlight a truly deplorable silence, our society’s tacit acceptance of a system of care that does not value the lives and futures of adolescents caught up in our criminal justice system. The problem is not that nobody’s talking. It is that the right people aren’t listening.

Thomas Hofstedt

Menlo Park

The letter writer is the chair of the Women’s Recovery Association Board.