Dealing with homelessness is difficult under the best of circumstances, but some state laws make life even more challenging for runaway and homeless youth.
Nearly 80 percent of U.S. jurisdictions have statutes allowing police to take unaccompanied minors into custody, and 16 percent consider running away a status offense that is punishable by law, according to a report that reviewed laws in all 50 states and six territories. Four states — Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota — explicitly permit courts to place runaway youth who have committed no other offense in secure detention facilities for delinquent juveniles.
“Young people are in need of help, not jail,” said Amy Louttit, a public policy associate for National Network for Youth (NN4Y), which released the 422-page report in conjunction with the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. “We want to end any punishment of young people that are out experiencing homelessness from getting these status offenses just because they’re minors.”
[For more on this story by Lacey Johnson, go to https://jjie.org/2019/02/14/ho...states-report-finds/]
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