Modern Events in Historic Buildings

Youth Court: a historic place...

The Youth Court is situated in a new wing attached to the historic Municipal Courts building in the centre of the city. 

Just like going into a museum in a big city, there's the xray and bag search, efficiently done but the only person in my lot to have the buzzers go off was me.  The bracelet I rarely take off, that has Teen1's name and birth date engraved on it always sets off the alarms.  If I have to visit Court more frequently, perhaps I should get the engraving tattooed on my wrist instead.

It is a beautiful building, the block work created from locally and regionally mined bluestone and whitestone and designed in the grand style of the late Victorian period.  A statue of Justice is elevated for all to see (if they aren't looking downcast at their shoes during their visit).  Inside it is not unpleasant; the paintwork light and clean, the carpet tough and deeply coloured.  Toys litter one waiting room and there's plenty of places to sit.

There's a modern link through to the Youth Court wing from the older building.  It is rather more inelegant, a little tight for space, and the Courtroom itself not too imposing but certainly one knows we are there to do business.

There's a flurry of activity just before 9am, when the presiding Judge will step up to the bench.  Youth accompanied by parents or care givers shuffle in to the waiting room, their demeanour so different to what it might have been only some hours or days earlier when in the wee small hours of the morning they were out on the town, puffed up with gangsta pride and a chest led swagger.  Only when one or the other recognises someone, do the heads come up, the tough kid grin passes over their face, and then it is back to pretending to concentrate on what the Social Worker is saying.

The legal aid lawyers bustle in just after 9am, search out their new or recidivist clients, quickly read out the charges and give a summary of what might happen in the courtroom.  One lawyer prepares the youth and family for the likelihood of continuing detention in Social Welfare care: "do you understand what this means?" the lawyer asks, and the kid nods glum faced.  Another lawyer is perkier and tells her client that they are likely to be released with a few bail conditions that will continue for a month or so.  A Social Worker talks grim faced to another family.  One youth looks still off his face from the night before.  Another lawyer I recognise from a meeting some months back when my son was supposed to be witness to the Defence relating to a charge of wilful damage against one of his mates.  We nod to each other.

I catch the eye of the Police Youth Officer and he comes over to talk to me.  I hold out my hand to shake his.  He shows me the bail conditions he wants the judge to impose, and without anything else to measure them by, I nod and agree.  As I stand looking out a window waiting to be called into Court, I see another Police Youth Officer glancing at me.  He's a nice man, and been very helpful in the past, but I pretend for a while to be interested in the world going on outside these windows.  I'm not ready to engage.   Eventually, I look over and he approaches.  "I've been better" I respond to his question.

Teen1's lawyer is a pleasant, older man; I imagine him with grown kids and maybe a grandchild or two, a family man.  He talks with T1 and says... well, he says everything that T1 has heard before.  He delivers his message with a firmness and practicality I like and I am pleased to have had this person recommended to be on T1's end of the bench.  We aren't there to get to know each other though.  

The hearing is brief, some ten or so minutes.  As recommended by the lawyer, the judge  hands over a copy of Tom Scott and Trevor Grice's highly acclaimed book on drug education, The Great Brain Robbery, one that many counsellors recommend to their clients, and one that has been kicking around my house for some years (along with books on sex and sexuality, body changes etc...I'm not sure that any of them have been read).   The Social Worker later recommends T1 do an assignment on the book, but T1 puts the book on the floor of the car as we drive away, and I doubt it will be read by choice.  I've been re-reading bits of it today, when really I'd rather be reading any of the books on my night stand like  "How to be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran, which would be a lot funnier and a lot more relevant to me than The Great Brain Robbery.  Anyway, it might be useful to get on top of the homework.

Released into my care, under a curfew of 9pm to 7am, no alcohol or drug use, ordered to attend any and all Family Group Conferences, warned that police visits are made randomly as are breath tests, and should bail conditions not be met, there are consequences like lock up and Social Welfare custody.

It is 8.58pm on day two of curfew and he has 2 minutes to get in the door....

What are the chances?