P.I.N.S. Warrant

P.I.N.S. is NOT the way you want to go and not something that should be taken lightly. Once a PINS is issued, parents no longer have a say what happens to the child. If the cops pick up the child and there is a PINS on him, he will get hauled in front of the judge and the judge will determine whether or not he goes to Juvenile Detection and from there whether or not he goes through the system, meaning foster care or back to this parents.

P.I.N.S. stand for “People In Need of Supervision” and it also means that Parents can’t supervise their own children. Therefore they are asking the court to HELP them supervise. They can’t come to court afterwards and beg the court NOT to do what the court chooses to do with their kids.

It is just a matter of the parents signing the papers and filing them with the arbitration officer. What happens to him depends on what he does. If he gets picked up by the cops his fate is in their hands, seriously. If he is looking to go to Juvie, he will. If he is looking to go to Foster Care and not necessarily a Jewish Home he will. Give him your number and give him the number for Mishkan or Ohel so he can call you or them immediately if he gets picked up. Try to line him up with a volunteer attorney that can go into court with him or can at least find out where he is. Make sure if you are the one to help him that you have his SS# so you can give it to an attorney to track him down. It might be easier than just his name.

It would be very wise to have him speak to an attorney or go with him to family court and speak to an arbitrator so they can tell him straight out what happens if a PINS is signed on him. This way he won’t take it as a joke. If you have contact with the parents you might want to tell them also that once they sign it, it is very difficult to get parental control of their child back. They should also not take it lightly. They are not dealing with schools and principals. Judges and the court system don’t take a request for assistance with their children lightly. Once you put in the request, they take over. You don’t get to change your mind, it is basically “no backsies”, the kid is in the system if he gets picked up by the cops.

Why would he get picked up by the cops. Obviously he is a minor. If he is not home by 10:00pm or whenever his parents tell him to be home, a reasonable hour for his age, the parents can call the cops and tell them that their child is NOT listening to them and refuses to come home and they have a PINS on him. The cops can then pick him up. Thats all it takes to get the ball rolling.

Please make it clear to this kid that it is NOT a joke. Juvie is NOT fun and neither is getting lost in the system. It is NOT camp! The guards take their jobs very seriously trying to teach kids respect. Believe me he doesn’t want to go there. I had a client there and I went to court with him. The judge wanted to put him back for 6 months but I was lucky that I got him a bed in a rehab center and the Judge agreed to send him there. He was very grateful and B”H we were able to get him to Pittsburgh and he turned his life around. He was 15 at the time, he is 21 now and doing well.

I talked a parent out of signing a PINS petition years ago. It was the wrong thing to do. Unfortunately, that kid did not make it anyway and he died at 17. The PINS would not have helped it would have just sent him down a different path. He was a child of divorce and carried a great deal of pain.

ZK, not a discussion for humor.

Juvie is lock up for kids. Basically that is “jail” for kids. It is not fun. Also known as “JD” for Juvenile Detention. That is a lock-up at a county facility like the court house or jail house. JD is the first step before ACS is called in. ACS is NOT called in until the child goes before the Judge. Once the child goes before the Judge, the Judge will order an investigation or that an ACS worker be assigned to the case. If the parents complain to the ACS worker that they can’t take care of the child and the child won’t listen to them, and the child says that he hates his parents and doesn’t want to live with them, the ACS worker will recommend to the court that the child needs temporary housing outside of the home. This is where things will get complicated and the red tape begins and where kids can get lost in the system.

I am NOT a big fan of Ohel, but I would suggest that you call Ohel and ask someone there what to do in case the child gets picked up. Is there an emergency Ohel number the child could call or someone advocating for the child could call. You need a plan of action and the child needs to know what to do. Of course the best thing would be that he doesn’t get picked up by the cops. Is he old enough to stay at Home Sweet Home? Is it possible that something can be worked out with the parents and Ohel for foster care before he gets picked up on a PINS warrant? Is it possible that he can get a Law Guardian to protect him from getting into the system?

Do you know why this child does not get along with his parents? Is Sonny working on the case? Why is the child so angry? Does he know the consequences if the court gets involved? Does he want to go to family court and speak to them to ask for help? Does he want help with his parents? He doesn’t necessarily have to get in trouble in order to get help. Does he know that?