So now it's been a month. How long does he have until his 18th birthday?
Ashley's Mom, Alex's parents are obviously all screwed up. I say this because it's what I say of *any* parents who look at their child's approaching eighteenth birthday as "running out of time." That, in my educated opinion, is an indicator of an extremely unhealthy desire to maintain control over an adult child's life.
When Alex is 18, please be kind enough to him to hire an attorney file a habeas corpus petition to produce him in court so he can physically say if he wants to leave.
If his parents try to get the court to order him to stay, please be kind enough to hire an attorney to represent his interest, seeking a new trial or hearing or doing everything possible, to get the court to revisit the case or move him. It should be possible for an attorney to argue that his presumable conviction was not a truly adversarial process because his parents felt they were "running out of time" and *wanted* to put him away past his 18th birthday and were seeking legal leverage to be able to do so.
The juvenile justice system can incarcerate someone until age 21, usually. But even in juvenile court, the accused has the right to representation that represents *him* and whether *he* is guilty or innocent---not his parents.
If he is found guilty and can't get it thrown out, a family court has to apply the standard of doing what is in the best interests of the child (in the case of delinquency, to rehabilitate the child). An attorney could base the case in court on SCL being abusive or neglectful, or being ineffective, and some other placement being better.
I know lawyers have to be paid, but Ginger probably has enough information from you to be able to substantiate who you are when you post. That means when Alex is coming up on his 18th birthday, you can come on here and ask for donations to his legal defense fund.
If Alex did whatever he is charged with, it is not necessarily wrong for him to be incarcerated until age 21---I can't possibly read all this, I don't know the charges, I don't know the potential penalties, I don't know if he did it. But accuseds and even convicts have rights. Youth or adult.
People's rights may frequently get violated, but their chances of successfully asserting them are a lot better with a good lawyer.
If Ashley wants to help Alex, the very best way to do it is to get a McJob and save all the money for a lawyer. You can save a lot in six months, even from a minimum wage teenage job.
If you want to help Alex, the very best way to do it is to set up a legal defense fund on his behalf, not owned by him (because then his parents could take it), and have his lawyer go to bat for him the day he turns 18.
If you want to give Alex money for when he gets out that he can get to but that his parents cannot touch, then what you probably need to do is open a UTMA account with a bank---which is real simple---in Alex's name with yourself as custodian.
Then it's Alex's money automatically on his 18th birthday (in most states, 21 in some, but even in those you can probably specify in the account creation that it becomes his at 18).
If you can't do the lawyer thing, then maybe what to do is just set up the UTMA account with yourself as custodian, give the account information here, so people can send donations to his account. Then he'll have his own money that his parents can't touch.
Here's a tricky bit I think might work with the lawyer thing. His parents, of course, are going to try to claim this guy isn't his lawyer. If you set up a UTMA account with yourself as custodian, from the day you set up the account, everything in it is legally *his money*. It's just that nobody can access it but the custodian (in this case you) of the account. As the custodian for that account, you can spend his money on his behalf, and your custodianship continues until he shows the place (bank, brokerage, whatever) where the account is that he's of age.
I *think* that if you open a UTMA account for Alex with yourself as custodian, and after he's 18 if he doesn't show up as having gotten out you retain an attorney on Alex's behalf using his money out of that UTMA account, that in the eyes of the court, that is going to make the lawyer you hire for Alex legally Alex's lawyer.
Which will make it a lot easier for that lawyer to file motions with the court(s) on Alex's behalf.
If I opened an account in your name and mine to give you money, I could hire a lawyer with it and say that's your lawyer, but the court might question whether it's really your money.
Because of the way UTMA law works, there is no legal question at all it's Alex's money, and if your custodianship hasn't been ended by an adult Alex, there's no legal question that you as custodian have the right to spend it on his behalf.
If his parents tried to tell the court the expenditure wasn't a reasonable expenditure on his behalf, and he's 18, the obvious next move for the lawyer you retain for him would be to say, "If Alex wants to end the custodianship and claim his money, we certainly encourage that, at which point he can decide for himself if he wishes to continue to retain my services. We would be more than happy if Alex claimed his money today, Your Honor. Our whole contention is that we are concerned Alex may be being coerced and misled into believing his has no money and no options and is not free to leave. We would be overjoyed and greatly reassured to know that Alex has been made aware that he owns this money."
This is probably the most effective strategy to help this particular kid.
I'm checking on some of the details of UTMA (Uniform Transfer to Minors) accounts to find out the best way to get Alex access to this money the day he turns 18. By "access" I also include Alex knowing he has this money.
There's nother sneaky way to get information to Alex, or get him produced, once he turns 18 if he doesn't leave, if the "you aren't really Alex's lawyer" contention is successful. People support some other recent survivor in suing SCL, pick a survivor that knew Alex at SCL, and have that survivor's lawyer issue a subpeona to Alex to appear in Court.
The lawyer can tapdance all over their asses if they try to keep the process server from serving 18 year old Alex, and the lawyer can then make him physically show up. At which point people can tell him that he has his own money, doesn't have to go back, isn't stuck choosing between coercion and a shitty exit plan.
The reality is that probably nobody is going to break Alex loose before he turns 18, and that after he's 18, because of him having charges against him, getting him loose is quite possibly going to involve lawyers and money.
Julie
