Using the police professionally .....when and how?

The third thought for talk on the involvement of the police and the criminal justice system in professional child and youth care work.

It seems a great pity  in South Africa that the specialised police units were disbanded . Units like the Child Protection Unit , The satanism Unit, The Domestic Violence Unit were disbanded decades ago. - was there a Missing Persons Unit? These units were really helpful. They had been trained or developed knowledge and skills that could be trusted in their responses to child centred issues. To work with specialised police people was a constructive exercise in the best interests of the child.

Now we deal with the general force and experience has taught us that we can't always rely on a child centred approach to the young persons we care for. At least recently the shackling of young people has been disallowed... but I'm not always sure that this can be trusted in every instance.

The experience is, in the main (but not always), a tendency by general police officers toward the use of scare and power tactics to scare them into " They won't do that again!"  The idea seems to be frequently that harsh treatment will frighten the children and young people from repeating behaviour. Its a tactic that we know just doesn't work.

That's one of our concerns as professionals in some instances when police get involved....we just cant predict, or manage how individual police persons will react with our clients.

"I caught him" He said. "It's my business to deal with this."

 He was a young constable. It was unlikely that he had children of his own, at a guess. He had caught the boy stealing clothing.

The constable opened his jacket to keep his service revolver visible and in full view throughout his harangue. He paced up and down with the boy sitting . The police officer was short and he needed to tower over the boy.
He shouted into his face for about 20 minutes. ... derogatory comments and names for boys who stole stuff. There was a series of threats. " If EVER you do this again - I will personally........"

As he left he said to me, " He won't do that again in a hurry ! "

The boy intensified the very issue we were working at... the police officers reaction set us right back to the beginning again.

THERE IS AN UPSIDE

In some situations the police have to be involved, as in the case of missing children, absconders as missing children, drug detection.....there are many such instances

An 18 year old severely disturbed girl ran wildly into the road. she dashed into the traffic waving her arms, then dashed back onto the sidewalk. She had just attacked a child care worker by grabbing and twisting her fingers into the workers long hair and twisting it to secure a hold.... dragged the worker to the kitchen table and grabbed a kitchen knife. The care worker had manage to free herself and climb under the table for self protection. The the girl dashed into the street totally without control and into the traffic... total chaos... and risk.

The police were called and were excellent. They held her, they contained her sensitively and talked her down   Once in the van, where she was safe, the contacted me.

"where do you want us to take her?" they asked. They knew that she couldn't be managed in an 'open facility'  A 'Place of Safety' was the only option at the time. They didn't want her as they had had her in safety before, and we were looking after her awaiting a vacancy at a psychiatric facility. The police knew that despite opposition they could use their authority to have her placed in safety. It was all very kindly and efficiently done.

In the rural and semi-rural villages and in partnership with community- based child and youth care workers, the experience of the professional seems to be a lot more positive and often really good. The police know the village and the villagers and the villagers know the police. Often they will be called to help with family disputes involving the children and the child care worker can manage much of the dynamics in the discussions.

Grannies will take a young person to a police officer to get the sense of discipline that comes from an otherwise absent male figure .

There is a warmer,community connection and the police are represented at child and youth care awareness campaigns, meetings and functions.

Bu the question for child care talk is still this...... in professional child and youth care, when and how do we deliberately professionally plan to involve the police and the criminal justice system in the best interests of the child?

We'll pay damages... just drop charges !!

This is the second in a series of thoughts for talk on the issue of using the police in professional child and youth care.

Part of the issue around the involvement of the police and the criminal justice system in some agencies appears to centre on the publicity that could arise if the press pick up and publicise an incident or a court case. The problem is that we work with young people where the probability of incidents that bring them into conflict with the law is frequently high. Boards of management and  also middle management of agencies often want to protect the name of the agency from connections with acts of law violation by the  children and young people in its care. It doesn't reflect well on the agency. Headlines in newspapers, and in the  'six o'clock news' are visualised.

In these agencies it becomes then 'policy' to avoid police involvement and the criminal justice system and the Director has to do what can be done to maintain the policy.

In these instances, The middle Management team then works to build up working relationships with public prosecutors and with editors of newspapers.... which is a good idea, but possibly for the wrong reasons. Maintaining a policy of "image" more than ensuring the best interests of the child and young person and the concept of restorative justice.

The local corner cafe called 'Sam's place' was owned by a man everyone called.... guess what? .... Sam .

A small and not that heavily guarded window was on the quieter side of the corner shop on the roadside leading down to the residential facility for boys. The boys formed a fair proportion of Sam's trade.

The little fellow was chosen because he was just that.... little. and being small, could be assisted through the stockroom window.The bigger one planned the break-in for the early hours of the morning. It was easy to break the glass and prize off the guard to let the little fellow through. The idea was, once in the stockroom he would pass bottles of fizzy drinks through the window to the big guy outside.

Getting in proved as easily as they had thought, but there was a surprise that they hadn't foreseen. The floor level of the stockroom was considerably lower than street level. Once in, the little fellow couldn't get out. !!

Once in, he was trapped....and panic set in.

What they did discover was that the storeroom was used to store paraffin as well as other stock. So they worked out a clever plan for the little fellow's escape.He would pour paraffin around the entire stockroom doorframe and set it alight with the matches he used to see his way round in the dark. Then he could push the door open and escape through the shop's front door by opening it from the inside. He followed 'big guys, instructions communicated through the window.

Flames and smoke, smoke and flames and more black paraffin smoke filled the stockroom. Now there was a real emergency.  Real life threatening danger.

The police just happened to be on patrol in a van, saw the bigger boy and the window . They got the story very quickly, called Sam, who lived above the shop . Sam opened the shop and the storeroom and saved the little fellow.

 The charge was breaking and entry with the intent of theft and malicious damage to property. The thinking was that the boys had something against Sam as a person

"We'll pay for the damages - just get Sam to drop the charges. Get decent quotes and we'll pay, but get him to drop the charges." ..... which for the sake of his business interests in the boys as his clients, Sam did fairly easily.

The motives behind both decisions had little to do with the two boys concerned One was to keep the incident  quiet for the sake of the Agencies reputation, The other to keep good relations with a customer base. but as it turned out , acted in the best interests of the little fellow especially. It gave us another chance with him. .. The bigger guy was transferred to a facility that had tighter security because of his influence over younger ones. But, given time over again, even that top management decision should have been reviewed.

But the principle needs to be discussed   "Pay the damages, drop the charges......What do you think?

"We don't call the police here!"...right or wrong?

"Why did you call the police?"

"It was an insurance case. I had to report it ".

The youth pushed his chest against my shoulder, now clenching his fists and stiffening against my body. The group around him drew closer and I saw a boy pushing him against me from behind.

"Why did you call the police?" The words came out between his teeth.


"I told you. It was an insurance case... anyway what did you expect? What did you think would happen?
For pity sake,... man,.. you set fire to the Home's mini-bus."


"WE DON'T DO IT  THAT WAY HERE !!", he said.


He was clearly very afraid.


It all started after this young person , then nearly 18years of age and another of the same age, discovered how to make an explosive bomb. The exact formula and method I never found out, but it used chlorine, which they stole from the swimming pool stockroom and petrol which they syphoned from the facilities mini-bus.


They had done it once before. They climbed into the garage through a space above the door and below the roof of the garage to syphon petrol out of the back of the mini-bus. One stupidly lit a match to help the other and the back of the bus exploded into flames. They panicked,escaped the way they came in, the bus still alight, and ran to their child care worker for help.


The damage was extensive, bur the boys who were learning motor vehicle panel beating and spray painting said that they could repair it. I knew it was an job for professionals and that the only way for me to go was to make a report to the police, get a case number and use it for insurance purposes.


The police decided to investigate a case of arson and to find the culprits. They came to my office to get more information on the suspects.


 Why the local station sent two young inexperienced constables into the lions den i have never been able to work out, Maybe they thought that this was going to be easy.


 The boys spotted the police van in the grounds and saw the young police woman and a young constable in my office. Unseen by us, the boys rallied the whole Home.Every boy child and young person , 103 of them, formed up, lining themselves on either side of a pathway between my office and the garage.


 When the two police officers asked to see the mini-bus and the damage, we stepped out into a pathway of jeering, fist waiving shouting and derision. The police walked the gauntlet pretending it wasn't there.


The boys hated the police with a passion....  hate names... spat out with derision and venom.

By the time we came out they were dispersed.


It was lunchtime when the group came to confront me at my house.


" Why did you call the police?" Now threatening me directly.


" WE DON'T DO IT LIKE THAT HERE!!!"


" Ok, you guys,where the hell do you think you live then? ALICE IN WONDERLAND? - Come on ...this is the real world here guys..... not some fairy land of your own. - get real. Wake up! What do you expect? 
Do you think your mini-bus gets burnt out and NOTHING WILL HAPPEN? The bus has to be sorted. You have to be sorted.  - GET REAL "


One boy said to the others, "Ok guys, forget it, lets go" .... the all went back to whatever.


But the big questions, the distrust and hatred  of the police, the idea that "here" things get sorted without the criminal justice system getting involved. ......... all these issues remained on my doorstep. the issues were raised and have never really gone away.


In this instance, the public prosecutor DID allow that we handle the incident internally. And I believe that the disciplinary committee ( later known as the Consultative Committee ) did a better restorative job than the court which would have sent the two boys to "Reformatory" or "Juvenile Jail" as it then was known. 


These questions for "talk'   still need to be explored further:


When do we use the police and/or the youth justice system in professional childs and youth care work?


When do we, ethically, use our rights as private citizens when our rights are violated to go through police  procedures notwithstanding our connection to our agencies?


When do other children and young people, or parents use the criminal and justice system with our concent or over our heads of our professional judgement and our restorative proceedings. 


 Using a series of narrative styled incidents, "Barrie talks child and youth care" will explore these talk issues with you.   

the need to know........diet and behaviour

Way back then... Masud Hoghughi Whilst in South Africa suddenly in mid-presentation, stopped and for no apparent, logical reason, turned to our leadership and said," You must please teach child and youth care workers about diet..... You have to know about diet to be a child and youth care worker."

It was really only much later that, for me, the message started to become clear. He was not talking about balanced meals... and yet he was talking about balanced meals. He was talking about the effect of certain foods on children's moods and behaviour.

Even now, although Africa has a great deal to give, this is another aspect of child and youth care where WE can learn from Europe, Asia and the America. It is most likely, I think, that I am writing this for Africa.

Mary Whiting reveals research-based facts about the effect of diets on young children's behaviour (www.teachingexpertise.com      Early Years Update October 2005)

She writes:
                 " It may sound amazing,but studies of children (and of teenagers and prisoners) have repeatedly shown that disruptive and even violent behaviour can be dramatically altered simply by changes to diet."

The blog talk on this site, "unlearning to learn" was inspired by a child care residential group experience relating to food in a somewhat dramatic way. And this may well be an African experience

On first arrival at a residential facility for children and young people, my late wife and I were blown over by the way food was served and eaten. Large amount of brown and white bread were put on the table at every meal. The children grabbed at it and consumed slice after slice before they started the main meal. Sometimes this could be 5 slices, easily The result was that foods were often left uneaten - like, for example certain vegetables.

 This we believed had to be reversed.... and fast !!

So, a rule was created, parental style:. "Eat the meal first. Bread will be provided after the main meal and restricted.to two slices of  brown bread only."

Well,..... the effect of making that change was a child revolt. They came out in force, they marched, they sang, they chanted, they scrawled graffiti on the walls,They acted wildly, seldom settling down, the fought among themselves, they emotionally and verbally attacked staff and each other, and the language was a shock to parental ears. It was a concentration camp.... they are being starved !!!!

Being new, help had to sought and the advise came from the best person I knew in the field in South Africa. (my guru). "You have it all wrong", he said. You are working with deprived children right now and their first priority is to feel full, and to have confidence enough to believe that food will not 'dry up' or be with-held. Let them feel the satisfaction of feeling full .If you don't allow this, at first, and if they fear deprivation is a likely-hood again..... then you must expect acting out. Given time, this will change"

We went back to bread on the table.

We opened what we called a " 24 hour kitchen". On each floor there was a constant supply of simple food-stuff for children who got hungry after school and especially at night.

Hoarding stopped, and the behaviour change across the boards was astounding.

We soon learnt that new-comers into the facility who came especially fro deprived backgrounds would crave that full feeling and would "stuff" as we called it. They took about 3weeks or more  to settle down.

Masud Hoghughi , I think, had something else in mind. And it was really only after years that, for me in Africa, the comment meant providing food to children and young people with the knowledge of the effect of additives, preservatives, colourants,  flavourants (like mono-sodium glutanate MSG).....especially tartrazines (red and yellow - as in some custards), sugar,caffiene, carbohydrates, and the list goes on.........And for some children,especiallly gluten sensitive children, and hyperactives, we had to learn aut the effects of specific foodstuff on their behavior.

Centralised kitchen facilities makes the management of dietary intake for individual children really quite difficult, I think. But the introduction of decentralised kitchens, especially in the  group home system made it all very easily manageable. Still, facilities  , even in Africa cannot afford to ignore the dietary impact of foods on the behaviour of children and young people..... it simply constitutes part of what we call professional care.

MaryWhiting refers to the research work of Dr Ben Feingold in particular, an American research worker and child health specialist, but adds,"Various other researchers have also found that on a sound, additive free diet, aggressive children can become normal and likeable again"

This was borne out by our experience when we started to make careful and professionally motivated decisions and changes to the diets of children and young people in care. The behaviour changes were dramatic, almost immediate and much in their best interests.

Again, I have a sense that I may be talking mainly to Africa, but it seems to me that this is a need to know area of care for us. Especially in Africa.

Unlearning to learn in child and youth care work

Parents ourselves, we come into child and youth care work bringing with us our own parenting beliefs methods, priorities and family values. Most of these we get from our own parent's ......so, we bring with us generations of parenting ideas and ethics.

The surprise is when much of this has to be unlearnt when we face the realities of working with troubled, distressed, hyperactive or deprived children. Sometime in training, but especially in practice, it comes as a shock to learn that much of what we hold to be true, prioritise, know to work or focus upon, simply is not so in our daily child and youth care practice.

An elderly, but athletic and sporting child and youth care worker had a group of troubled older boys in his care. One evening at 'lights out" the boys were "hyped -up", not manageable, when they should have been settling down for the night. His solution was to take them on a run around the soccer field. The idea was that they would get tired. Fatigued they would then just shower, get into bed and sleep like babies - makes sense as a parent - yes.

 The big shock came when they were more hyped- up, more out of control and less manageable than before. There was no fatigue " that was good, shower and to bed " as was parentally expected,. But just the opposite.!!

Perhaps there is research evidence  for this, but the experiential lesson was that in the population of young people that come into care, there are a fair number with difficult to manage behaviours whose behaviour escalates after exertion and activity and this has an infectious effect on the rest of the group. Result......... opposite to what we know.as parents.

One middle teenage boy struggled with stealing behaviour. Whenever he was tense and or stressed, he would steal. So, when he was caught, more especially by the police or confronted, the commonly held tactic by adults was to threaten him with punishment or court action. This would scare him into stopping.... no, no, .... this raised his anxiety levels and he would immediately - but immediately, steal again.

The commonly held parental/world understanding of what works - simply made it worse.

 As parents we hold a lot to be important in the behaviour of our own children. For us, as parents we tend to strongly value "good manners", "not smoking", "being tidy", "personal hygiene", "education".

On coming out of anaesthetic.after life threatening eight hour surgery, at age 12, I asked for a hospital bottle.I wanted to urinate. The sister, struggling and frustrated by the drip in into my arm said sharply,                   "Say PLEASE !" I heard a softer, lighter voice - a nurse behind her say" Sister, he's just a little boy and he has just come out of anaesthetic"
"I don't care," said the sister, "He can say 'please'"

That is us parents.... the please and thankyou of everyday manners, the don't smoke, watch your language is so important to us sometimes that we can miss the more essential priorities of children anaesthetised by hurt removal, loss abuse and discouragement.

These unlearning lessons just never seem to end for us. It doesn't always apply, but frequently professional child and youth care practice all too often takes us into a state of jolted shock when what we know works as parents simply does not work with the children and young people in our care.




              

Do you remember when.......child care stories for talk 9

Every child care worker has stories to tell and there are always lessons to be learnt from them.... here are a few to start us thinking...

1.Whilst on a camp,four senior girls complained to their child care worker that there was blood in their urine. Sure enough the urine of all four had that pinky hue. They were in panic. The childcare worker went into panic and so did I. What infectious outbreak was being started at this camp? Where in the middle of nowhere is the nearest medical facility?
Eventually though it was resolved.

The camp caterers were producing the same array of salads everyday, amongst which was a salad that these four were eating in quantity daily

 ..............Beetroot salad !!!


2. A teen was taken to the casualty section of the local hospital in need of treatment. But a heart attack case was brought in by his friends form the bar where they had been drinking. So the boy was forced to sit and wait. In that time another of our boys was delivered to casualty . He needed stitches in his hand. So they both sat with me , waiting. The heart attack case was revived enough to, on his insistence, be wheeled back into the waiting area . He said goodbye to each of his friends waiting there, and to the two boys from the Home, shaking their hands seriously and saying goodbye. He was wheeled back into the treatment room and died.

When the two boys went into the treatment room the covered corpse was laid out on a stretcher and    pushed to one side.  His one foot was uncovered. and a label had been tied to his big toe with his name and details written on it.

Not one of us could stop those boys morbid, excited curiosity from them giving that foot long and close up attention, remarking on its colour, temperature, and every detail on the label..... forget their injuries.

...... what a story was relayed to the others in the dormitory that night !!!!


3. One night well into the early hours of the morning, two youths tried to syphon petrol from the garaged 14 seater mini bus.  They wanted to make a home-made bomb. Problem was they couldn't see that well, so one lit a match to help the other. When the mini-bus exploded into flames they ran to their child care worker for help..

4.The 'motor-bike' boys brought chocolate Easter eggs for a hot-cross bun and chocolate egg breakfast on  Easter Sunday. It was my third day as a child care worker

At the same time a local retail store delivered box fulls of broken Easter eggs.

Not one of us tried to control the children's chocolate intake as we thought it would offend the 'motorbike boys and girls'

............. and we didn't know!!!

Left over chocolate was made into puddings.... they will never forget. !!!

The sugar hype with lots of really out of control children lasted a week.......or more

death, denial,delivery.....the African lesson

It was my first time at a Jewish burial. The mourners filled in the grave. My most vivid memory is the sound of the first spade full of rough stony soil on the coffin. drub, drub drub.The dirt was shoveled in until the grave was filled and heaped on top.

It was that first drug, drub drub, on the box, that spoke to me of "finality" - a certain undeniable end...... that life was no more - for sure. And the dust flew in a great cloud surrounding everyone.

Sally had two children in the Children's Home - both in their very early teens - Carol and Dirk.

The call from the hospital wan't that surprising really, considering her life journey and her present circumstances. Sally had overdosed in what was an unsuccessful suicide attempt."unconscious, critical but stable", they said, so the two children were rushed to her bedside. Sally lay looking to be asleep surrounded by pipes, tubes and equipment.

The following morning there was another hospital call. " we're sorry to tell you . Sally has just died. She gained consciousness and pulled out all the tubes and support systems" The hospital was asked to make her look good and to wait until the children arrived to say goodbye before they removed the body to the hospital morgue. Carol and Dirk were given a red rose each to lay on their mom and an opportunity to say goodbye. Again, Sally looked asleep, but this time more peaceful than the day before. hey said goodbye, covered her head with the bedsheet and were brought back to the Home. They did not cry

It was a Christian funeral. Sally was to be cremated. Carol and Dirk watched the closed coffin carried into the local church. Followed it to the front. The service was very short.. The coffin was carried out and again Carol and Dirk were accompanied as they followed it out to the awaiting hearse. Then it was all over. Nothing more.

Sally's ashes were given to her brother and his family who lived in Namibian and they took the ashes there because it was her original home. But, unsure of what to do exactly , they delayed internment  and held onto the little box in their house in Namibia.

 The telephone conversations between the uncle, Carol and Dirk helped to confused them." Your mother is still here. 'We still have your mother she is here in Namibia". "Your mother is in our house we will look after her until you come."

 For Carol and Dirk, there was no death.Mom was never dead. She was always just sleeping. What was inside that coffin in and out that day, well it just wasn't a dead mother. Sally was alive and in Namibia. Nothing would convince them otherwise. The only thing we could do was to retrieve the ashes and work out a rite for those two children that would allow them to experience mom as physically gone . Dirk and Carol cried for the first time that day. They had to put their denial behind them.

There is something very valuable and useful in the traditional African was of dealing with death, mourning  and burial. The week of being allowed to grieve, the all night vigil with the body present, open coffin viewing and a burial with the whole community present. All this, with the whole community supporting the principal mourners with community singing that is encouraging and joyful. The blanket over the coffin dulls that drub, drub drub..... Yet somehow there is a sense of delivery... a rite of passage to a new continued life. No denial, no dilemma but delivery.

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