My niece is being abused and I don't know what to do!

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I just returned from a family reunion in Mississippi and I live in Georgia. My sister just started working for the post office about a month ago. The first day of the reunion she asked me to watch her four kids becuase she had to unexpectantly go to work and deliver the mail. She lives in a two bedroom trailer home in downtown Hattiesburg which is a terrible neighborhood, so I was reluctant to go over there in visit her kids, due to the fact my two small children were there with me two- am three yhear old and my four month old. The home was very dirty, there were dirty clothes all over the floor, flies everywhere, and a very dirty refrigerator. I spent a night to watch the kids early in the morning. When I awoke, I found that my sister left us with the front door open. I was mad at that. Also my 11 year old niece which is the eldest, quickly made breakfast for all of her smaller brothers, who are 6, 3, and 1. I asked her who usually keeps them when the mother has to go to work and she said she does by herself and sometimes the mother is gone from 5 in the morning until 7 at night delivering mail. T o make the story short as possible. My niece said that her brothers were making her life miserable, the smallest one had burns all over his body from curling irons and etc she told me. And she said she wanted to come back to georgia with me. When she told her mom she wanted to come back with me, her mom flipped, pulled her by her hair out of my car, called her a b word and told her she is nothing with out her. My niece was terrified. I asked her does this kind of abuse always go on and she said yes. I wanted to take her with me but my sister said if I left the premises with her daughter she would call the police. So we called the police to do everything legal. The police that showed up knew my sister, and even though me and my niece told him the story about how my sister called her names, pulled her hair, slapped her and threaten to kill her, he took her side and said my niece is a minor and needs to remain with the mother. I did not go there to take my sister's daughter away but I also want her to be treated good and not taken advantage of. I am back in Georgia now andI worrk every minute for my niece in her three brothers, what should I do? Should I forget about the whole thing and focus only on my two little children or what?