On The Streets

State asks: how can we commit teens against their will?

by Sharon Bass

Don't bother arguing with Portland state Rep. Michael Quint whether locking up homeless kids who are in such bad shape they can't care for themselves -- and could die -- is wrong. He's hell bent on making sure these kids get involuntarily committed somewhere and helped.

And now he's got a law to back him up.

Still, Paul Vestal is arguing. "Until somebody can show me the statistics that being homeless has lead to any kid's death, I am completely against it," says the former homeless kid. All grown up now, Vestal is director of St. Michael's Center in Bangor, a day treatment program for troubled adolescents run by Catholic Charities of Maine.

Quint and Vestal will be hashing out their differences as members of a new statewide committee, whose first order of business is to establish rules and regulations for involuntarily committing kids. This task force, of which Quint is a chair, is the result of a bill passed last April called "An Act to Provide Services for Children in Need of Supervision." One provision of this law is to allow for the involuntary confinement of certain kids, as yet to be defined by the committee.

The thought of locking up already traumatized, victimized children may send a chill up many spines, but Quint says for some kids, there really is no alternative. He's talking about kids who are living on the streets, strung out on drugs, being sexually exploited by adults. Kids whose hair and teeth are falling out. Kids who have already known a lifetime of pain, of abuse, of neglect. Kids who don't give a damn about themselves, because no one's ever given a damn about them. Kids who might perish if no one steps in.

So for these kids, which Quint estimates at no more than 25 statewide at any given time, he cautiously, yet passionately advocates for them to be taken away against their will and treated.

"These kids have absolutely nothing. This is for kids who need immediate assistance . . . or they could die," he says.

While Vestal and Quint disagree on what should be done with these kids, they both say they're scared of what could happen if this piece of the law goes into effect as scheduled in October 2001.

Quint's worried that the children could be tossed away somewhere and forgotten, with no one to advocate for them. Vestal's fear is rooted in the state's Children in Need of Services (CHINS) law, which was abolished in the mid 1970s. He says that act, which allowed for commitment of kids under 18 who didn't comply with stuff like mental health and substance abuse treatment, was abused by some parents, who used it as a way to get rid of their kids. Children needing compassion and guidance were sometimes locked up as delinquents.

Furthermore, Vestal asserts, "You take a kid on the street who's not participating in treatment and then you lock him up and he doesn't participate. Then what do you do? Send him to the [Maine] Youth Center?"

Over Quint's dead body. "You're not going to put handcuffs on these kids and put them in the back of a sheriff's car," he says. "I love these kids. I absolutely love these kids. I will not make this a bad thing for them. Otherwise, I will repeal this law."

The oversight committee is to address these concerns. Its recommendations for how to carry out involuntary commitments -- how kids will be transported to a facility, what sort of facility will be used, what kind of treatment will be offered -- are to be presented to the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee by early next year. However, the task force has yet to conduct its first meeting, which was slated for September 15, but was canceled because the three seats designated for homeless kids have not been filled.

Portland 17-year-old Lee Woods, who knows some kids who live on the street, thinks if involuntarily committing children will save their lives, it's an OK thing to do. However, he says, the homeless kids he knows don't want help.

What do they want? "Not to be homeless," says Woods.