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Show Lakeside Review, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1981 J &&& f' , ' tt ? OFFICER BRUCE BERINGER From Roy Police Department (above) escorts a juvenile into Moweda for detention pending a juvenile court hearing. A Moweda cell (right) lacks many of the comforts of home, - j, Moweda Only Stopover For Troubled Youths ROY The crisis began when the mother of one of the students got a bottle of Tagamet, a prescription drug used for ulcer treatment. He had asked his mother to bring them to him. The harmlessness of the situation changed when the boy excused himself, left the room, and swallowed ail 27 of the pills in the bottle. Usually helpful dnigs like this can be very dangerous if taken in large quantities, said Tony Hassell, director of the Moweda detention home in Roy. ' The male was teen-ag- e en-- . couraged to regurgitate it at Moweda; when he refused he was transported to a hospital for treatment. The boys mother refused to accompany him to the hospital telling officials at Moweda that she had had it with him. Hassell explained that the mother had had to sleep with her purse under her pillow to prevent her child from stealing money from it. Her child had also stolen and sold many of the fixtures in their home. This is the type of hard core criminal youths who are placed in the Moweda center. Kids that are a threat to the community, Hassell said. Others are unwanted or unmanageable. ' in a suicidal situation at the home will be watched carefully and checked to see if he needs psychological help or if he was just manipulating the situation for effect. The Weber County Mental Health Department would decide whether the child would be helped more by a hospital or a jail. ; s who are held at the Moweda home are most often those kids who have become too much of a problem for their parents to handle. ' They are held there until authorities decide what is the best thing to do with them. Some of die kids are placed in foster homes. A teen-age- Teen-ager- - some' are put in hospitals others ing problem. are committed to youth correction The average age of the kids in institutions. Moweda is 15 and their education A few are returned to their level is 10th grade. At least thats what the kids tell the officials at homes, but no one leaves the detention home without strings atMoweda. Hassell said he doubted tached, Hassell said. Many of the that the students that come to agencies on the outside will have Moweda have been to that much connections with' the kids. This school. kind of support has helped to turn The detention home has a small kids around, Hassell said. About 70 school program through Weber percent of the kids never come County School District. back to the Moweda home. The Most of the kids are smokers home takes in about 1,300 a year, 73.03 percent, Hassell said and 51 Hassell said. percent of them have used drugs, The center has the support of usually marijuana. many of its neighbors, Hassell The kids come from all over the said. The safest place to live is state and stay an average length of right next to the home, he said. six days, he said. They do have runaways. In the last 11 years that Moweda has been The number of kids in the detenopen, they have had 14 runs. All of tion home fluctuates with the the kids were picked up within an school year. Hassell said that the hour of escape. All of those who pressures at school and at home ' escaped were allowed outside the increase when school begins in the fall because parental expectations building on good behavior. go up. ways do not stay around the detention home, he said. Kids also follow the emotional Hassell gives the parents of the he said. of their patterns teens most of the responsibility for The father of the parents, who took the boy the criminal actions of the kids. bottle of Tagamet pills had killed The number of kids in the detention himself. Hassell said that the child center is increasing. Both a seasonhad learned to deal with al increase and a gradual overall from his fathers behavior.problems increase, Hassell said. Hassell clarified his opinion by He said that the overall increase was a national trend which has saying it was not necessarily the resulted from the loss of parental substance of a home that created It is the control over children nationwide. problems for Juvenile crime is rising faster than structure, he said. the population, Hassell said. The atmosphere inside the deten.Another problem that contrition home is realistic, Hassell said. butes to juvenile crime is the lack Kids are given immediate punishof communication between parents ment from their peers for away and their teen-ag- e children. Chilor breaking the rules. dren become alienated from their disrupting discussions get rethe Sometimes n years and ally hot, he said. ' parents in their it is difficult to regain that comKids come from the three counmunication, Hassell said. About 70 percent of the kids that ties that support Moweda, Morgan, come into Moweda are from one Weber and Davis as well as a few from out of state, including parent families. Hassell said that kids this seems to be another contribut- - kids from the Job Corps centers in . r . teen-ager- s. pre-tee- ' I v, . .. - rs . ' ' x ' , '',$ fsA, ' ji '' Davis County and transients, Hassell said. The staff at the home are not allowed to touch the kids and the kids are not allowed to touch the teachers; however, Hassell said he had been hit several times by frustrated students. When the heat is on, everybody, including the staff involved, is sent to their rooms to cool down. When everybody is calm, usually an hour later, they talk about it, Hassell said. The staff has been trained to avoid judging kids for what theyre in for. Sometimes it is hard when the child admits to rape or murder, he said. Nothing a kid says in the home can be used against him in the courtroom. Whats said is confidential, Hassell said. Hassells job is a stressful one which shows him the darker side of society. We see all the rot, he said. But he wouldnt trade it for anything. Its the most interesting job Ive had, he concluded. Story By Maggi Holmes Photos By Dan Miller HANDCUFFS, BARS and enorm- ous locks and keys are all a part of the Moweda de- tention process. Juveniles are usually held for short period of time waiting for relocation or they are returned to their parents. 3C |