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Show Youth in trouble Juvenile detention and shelter care ly Steve Christensen hpmi Auiilont Editor Editor's Note: This is the first of a three fart series dealing with juvenile detention deten-tion and shelter care. The first is an vsrview of the Uintah Basin Youth Ctnter, and the problems of detaining lnveniles. The next two articles will 'eal more specifically with juvenile offenders of-fenders and shelter care children, the Procedures and processes of the law. Three months ago the Uintah Basin 'uth Center opened its doors. The adjutages ad-jutages to law enforcement agencies 11 Duchesne, Uintah, and Daggett countles has been enormous. There ,r no more midnight trips to Wngville to incarcerate juvenile offenders, since juveniles cannot can-not be placed in jail with adults. The Youth Center is a detention center for juveniles charged with breaking the law, as well as a shelter home for kids who have no place to go, for whatever reason. Bob and Bonnie Allen are live-in house parents for the home. In the three months the facility facili-ty has been open, they have seen juveniles who have been taken from their parents for abuse and neglect, and others who have been charged with auto theft and sodomy. What kind of a 14 year old boy would force a 10 year old girl to have sex with him, and get away with it for six months? Perhaps one whose mother thinks there is nothing wrong with him. It's just a phase he's going through. True story. Life for Bob and Bonnie Allen, as well as Mike and Carolyn Smuin, who work when the Aliens get an occasional occa-sional day off, plus nights, is certainly certain-ly not boring. What would you do if a policeman woke you up at 3 a.m. and told you to take care of a drunken 15 year old whom you had never seen before? If your name was B. Allen you would probably get out of bed and help Mike book the teenager, give him a shower, make sure he isn't in any danger from alcohol, put him in a cell, then go back to bed and try to go to sleep. If your name was M. Smuin you would stay up, as he always does, and check on the juvenile regularly to make sure he is okay. Mike makes regular checks on all the juveniles in detention, as required by law. Throughout the day and night incarcerated in-carcerated juveniles must be checked every 30 minutes, to be sure they pose no threat to themselves. Okay, so maybe you could handle that, after all, the kid got himself in trouble. Try this one. In the middle of the afternoon two girls, ages 5 and 13 are brought in by the sheriff and placed plac-ed in shelter care. The 13 year old has bruises on her cheeks. The 5 year old shows no signs of being hit, but admits she has been beaten before. The mother comes in and wants her children back. You explain they are now in the custody of the Juvenile Court, and only the judge can release them. You try to explain the procedure, pro-cedure, but the mother says she is late for a ball game and must go. You tell her she will need to talk with a social worker to see about a hearing to get her children back, but she says she will be busy tomorrow, and it'll just have to wait until the following day. She turns and leaves. True story. Bob is a large man, maybe 6 feet 5 inches, maybe 240 pounds. He has a wonderful demeanor with kids, but he also has two small tattoos. One on each arm. Only tough guys have tattoos, right? It's kind of like Bob will be your best friend, but don't cross him, and don't test him. You can't win. Bob says they have been lucky so far. They haven't had any really bad kids. No murderers, anyway. He says that day will come, and he'll be ready for that too. But he won't like it, and he won't soon get over it, just like so many things in this kind of a job you don't get over. For Bob, getting over kids is a way of life. Before moving to Vernal in April, Bob and Bonnie had spent years working with children in California. Not so with Mike and Carolyn. Mike said he always wanted to work with children, but when this job became available, he really didn't think he had any chance to get it, since he had no training and no experience. When he was interviewing for the job. one of the things the people emphasized was that you could not become attached to the kids. Things would be difficult enough without becoming emotionally involved. continued on paqe 2 Juvenile... Continued from page 1 Mike said he knew that would be a difficult thing to do, especially the way he loves kids, but after he took the job he realized it was impossible. Mike says there have already been kids in the Youth Center he will never get over. He has a collection of letters from children who have moved on, some back home, some to foster homes, and some to incarceration elsewhere, thanking him for what he did for them. Mike worked in the oilfields for years before he came to the Youth Center. He made more money in the oilfields, before he was laid off, but never has he had a better job. There is nothing in life quite the same as feeling feel-ing needed. No amount of money can buy the feeling of helping just one kid get out of a hole. A hole usually dug by someone else, and just happened to be there for the kid to fall in. There have been over 50 children come to the Youth Center since it opened, open-ed, both in shelter care and detention. Of all those kids, only five had both their mother and father living at home. The rest came from broken homes. Bob says he is no psychologist, and he does no counseling of the children who come to the home. He is there for crisis intervention only. What he does do is talk to them, and be straight with them. He believes lack of those two elements is the reason so many of the kids end up at the Youth Center, both in detention and in shelter care. Although Bob doesn't think there is really a prototype juvenile offender, and no prototype parent whose children end up in shelter care, there are many similar traits among kids who come to the homes. The juvenile offender's problems begin with a lack of communication with parents, which leads to a resentment and finally a resentment of society as a whole. Bob says it happens to nearly everyone, it happened to him. Only most of us don't end up doing something bad enough to be picked up for, or perhaps some of us were just lucky not to get caught. Juveniles brought to the home have done something wrong, and they got caught. And now they are incarcerated. in-carcerated. Once they are brought by a law enforcement officer to the Youth Center they are held until the juvenile court decides what to do with them. A hearing must be held within 48 hours. These hearings are held every Monday, Mon-day, Wednesday, and Friday, when necessary. Since there is no juvenile judge in the area, Court Referee Tom Freestone, through authority of the juvenile court, holds the hearings and determines what will happen to the juveniles. Sometimes, for minor offenses of-fenses juveniles are released in the custody of their parents. Other times they are held until the juvenile judge is in the area, which is every two weeks. The Youth Center is not meant to be a permanent home for shelter children, nor provide permanent incarceration. in-carceration. It is meant only to detail children until a more permanent situation situa-tion can be found. Bob says there are reasons why they get along better with the children than other people have been able to. First of all, he says they are always straight with the kids. This goes beyond being honest, even to the point of respecting them. He says it is not their place to judge the kids, and he makes them know that. Their only job is to hold them, and make sure they are taken care of. Bob says the kids seem to not only respect that, but even appreciate it. There have been juveniles who have been very abusive when they were brought in and booked, but there hasn't yet been one who has been abusive after Bob has laid down the house rules and told them what is expected ex-pected of them. There is a sign in the office which has only three words on it, fair, firm, CONSISTENT. This is the motto of the Youth Center. Bob said he has never had any of the juveniles refuse to do what he has asked ask-ed of them, and would be surprised if someone ever refused. Bob and Bonnie love kids. You would have to, in order to have four of your own, plus up to eight others you are caring for. Bob says the main problem they face is having their own space. Since they live right there, and use the same kitchen facilities for themselves that they use to cook for the children, it's almost like a revolving family. Only On-ly from day to day you don't know how many people there will be for dinner. The Aliens are not concerned about what the environment of the Youth Center will have on their own children. Bob says, if anything, they learn from the mistakes of the others. Hopefully they will not need to make the same mistakes for themselves. Because burnout is such a problem in this kind of situation, Bob and Bonnie Bon-nie attempt to get away from it as much as they can. Mike and Carolyn come in on the weekends and take over, even if Bob and Bonnie intend to stay at home. This gives the Aliens a chance to just do what they want to do without the responsibilities of the home. Mike says one of the most challenging challeng-ing things about the job is the staying under control at all times. He said you cannot afford to let the kids get your goat. The kids can be con artists, and you just have to make sure you're in constant control. The most important element in controlling con-trolling what's going on, says Mike, is knowing the individual situations, and taking the proper precautions. On July Ju-ly 4 Bob said it was okay to take the kids outside, into a fenced in area, to watch the fireworks. Since there were a couple of juveniles in detention at that time, they handcuffed them and put leg irons on them. They llicy went out and ale watermelon and watched the fireworks. Needless to say, there were no problems. |