The Post recently exposed the details of the highly problematic $1 billion contract to detain asylum-seeking women and children in a private prison facility in Dilley, Tex. I am more troubled by the underlying policy of family detention embraced by the Obama administration. The practice of locking up vulnerable mothers and children fleeing violence is wrong and contradicts the United States’ historic commitment to providing a safe haven to those fleeing persecution. It diminishes our credibility as a humanitarian leader.

These mothers and their children have committed no crime, yet some of them have spent more than a year in detention. Child-welfare experts tell us that detention can cause lasting cognitive and psychological harm to children, particularly for those who have already experienced significant trauma. That is why mothers and children should not be detained — whether in a private facility or elsewhere. Detention should not be a money-making business. We must end the policy of family detention now, regardless of how it is managed.

The administration’s willingness to pay almost anything to lock up mothers and children as quickly as possible is shocking, and that decision will be a lasting blemish on this administration’s record. There is still time to right this wrong.

Patrick Leahy, Washington

The writer, a Democrat from Vermont,

is the ranking member of

the Senate Judiciary Committee.