In 1980 or `81, I had a completely different experience with a very similar kind of law. I'd landed up in Youngstown, Ohio. Someone who'd given me a ride had talked me into going to a timeout house to try and get some help getting established somewhere instead of just wandering aimlessly as I had been.
At the time, Ohio had a 48 hour law, but it was enforced a little differently. A runaway kid could stay any place they were welcome for up to 48 hours before any adult in charge had to rat them out. A lot of the kids in this timeout house made a lifestyle of just packing up their kits and moving from one house to another every other night.
The counselors there gave me a short interview, determined that I probably wasn't dangerous, invited me to stay and get some sleep and good food and asked that I volunteer for something on the chore list. They also let me call long distance to talk to my sister. The doors were not locked, there was no kind of coercion at all. I didn't care much for sharing sleeping quarters with half a dozen strangers. But that was the worst of it.
Also, I'd like to add that in all the time I spent hitchhiking around the country, mostly with interstate truck drivers, probably 4 or 5 months alltogether, not once did any pimp try to get control of me. Oh sure, I got the put out or get out ultimatum a few times. And it really did suck having to get out and walk in the freezing rain. But that was about the worst of that.
That's why I really don't give much credence to all these wild stories about 13 year old crack-whores. I know they exist, but I don't think the problem is widespread. I spent a good deal of time with habitual runaways and never saw any of that kind of thing. Mostly, they're just kids trying to find some fun and a dry place to sleep while they wait out their time till they're allowed to walk around free and hold jobs and apartments like real live humans.
Anyone who really wants to help runaway kids need only secure a commisary license and a building suitable for a rooming house. Lots of churches and private philanthropy organizations support youth hostiles like this. In the old days, they weren't even all that stigmatic, as teenaged kids and young adults used to go traveling 'just because', not as runaways.
Now, I haven't seen how this 72 hour law written. But if it's already on the books and if it's anything like some of the laws here, maybe the best strategy is to promote proper, beneficial implimentation while exposing and dunning AARC-style abuses?
-If there's a worse idea going than locking kids up for victimless crimes, it's probably locking them in close proximity to some tyrannical altruist bent on helping them even if it kills them.
Anonymigy Anonymous