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Do You Let Your Teen or Young Adult Sit in Jail?

Wow! This is a tough one. Or is it? We have dealt with this a lot over the years at Vive! As difficult as it is to endure our own child's suffering, it's sometimes appropriate to let a young person who has violated the law sit in jail; sometimes it's even wise to resist the tempation to hire a lawyer to get them off.

A few years ago, I worked with a young man who was abusing drugs and was heading for real trouble. I knew he needed drug rehab but he was still oblivious to the depth of his problem. Eventually his bad choices caught up with him and he ended up in front of the judge for driving with a revoked license. As his Mentor I accompanied him to court where he was sure he would just get a slap on the wrist.

What he got was five days in jail. With the support of his Vive! parent coach, Dad resisted the powerful urge to bail him out. He let his son sit in jail. When I picked him up five days later he said, "take me to rehab." This was the wake up call he needed in order to save him from future disaster; fortunately, his Dad did not deprive him of this key lesson.

Thank you Dad!

After completing rehab and digging into his recovery process, he successfully completed his probation and had his record sealed so that it will never show up on a background check.

Posted by Dave Herz on December 5, 2006 10:33 AM |

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