Juvenile justice. Law enforcement. Social services. Child welfare. All have black and white choices, right? Anyone working in these areas would laugh at this notion. As professionals we understand that each of these areas crisscrosses willy-nilly across each of the other areas, often two or three areas and the individual solutions are nowhere near black and white. It seems those outside of our work, as well as the media look in at our choices from the outside and tell us, “This is what you need to do with these cases. These are the 1, 2, 3-step guidelines for handling these situations when they crop up.” Their “guidance” comes from talk groups and committees, often convened from litigation and media coverage of a case that went terribly wrong. As if the outcome would have been different if there had been black and white guidelines put into place. This is where I scoff sarcastically to myself because so many of these rule-makers have never been face-to-face with a very real, very complicated juvenile crisis. Those of us who have know that you cannot just whip out the guide book, follow each step to the letter and the outcome will be positive and predictable.
Here’s the dilemma.
It’s 9pm on a Saturday and your agency has been contacted by the local hospital. A young lady less than 15, older than 12 years old was admitted several hours ago for treatment of a broken bone sustained in a non-criminal fashion. This young lady falsifies her admittance documents reporting that she is 21 years old, but staff know better and are able to identify her true identity. The social worker at the hospital was able to ascertain that she has been on her own for at least a year. Her family is not concerned with current living situation and has nothing positive to offer at home. This child has a maturity level closer to her stated age than her biological age. She has secured stable housing with a 20 year old “friend” and his mother.
The hospital has contacted your agency because this young lady is being discharged and due to her age cannot be discharged, due to guidelines back to her current living situation. Staff are required to have her placed back at home or with a social service agency. The local housing agency for her age group can offer a shower and a bed for the night but little else. It also puts her in contact with other negative elements, delinquency and substance use that she seems to be successfully avoiding on her own. My agency has been asked to transport her to the social service placement because home is not an option per her family. At time of discharge, her current housemates, including the seemingly responsible adult mother of her “friend” are in the area ready to take her to where she has been currently living to care for her basic needs and her new medical needs.
Let’s look at regulations.
In this case, regulations say if her legal guardian won’t allow her back then she has to be taken into the system, assigned a case worker and placed in an emergency shelter. She becomes a foster child. Her caseworker is then tasked with finding her a permanent foster situation where she lives happily ever after in a home with nice stable parents, good food, education and all her basics needs met until she turns 18. This is the “pie in the sky” outcome of the formula guidelines given in a black and white world.
Now for reality, our state foster system has been making news for having lost 400 foster homes in the last year, accused of abuse and neglect due to the way cases are handled and with few placement options living in hotels for months with foster kids. Well what if the current home this child has been staying at can get certified and she can be placed there? That seems like a possibility due to the responsible adult in the home, but that hinges on this woman having no criminal, substance use or child welfare background…ever…in her life. It doesn’t matter if she is a responsible, viable, healthy person now. She will be nixed by the system for her past. And, then there is the matter of the “friend” who is an adult so technically if an intimate relationship is discovered, he’s now facing criminal charges. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying this is an appropriate relationship. So, let’s say she does manage to be placed in an emergency foster home; the system is designed to continue to push reunification with her biological family. In this case, there really isn’t any legal reason why she can’t live at home. Simply stated-her mom doesn’t want her. So, the system will continue to try and change this while at the same time directing this young woman’s life. This is when each individual situation comes into play. This is where the black and white guidelines don’t work. Obviously this too mature child has found a safe place where her needs are met. What the system will offer her is just more dysfunction and chaos. Most likely she will never stay where she is placed and will eventually end up on the streets fodder for the real predators.
So, these are your choices. Either you follow the black and white guidelines of the system or you figure out real solutions in the moment. These are the situations and the choices officers and juvenile justice workers face every day. It’s easy to tell us from a board room that this is what we have to do, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have to make real choices day in and day out with real lives in our hands. I won’t share what we chose to do in the case presented here. What I want leaders to take away from this is that it’s not black and white on the street so black and white guidelines don’t work.
